Elemental Turmoil
by BewareTheDragon1
Summary: Nothing lasts forever. Nothing is eternal. Everything is lost in the elemental turmoil. When catastrophe strikes and heroes fall, the only hope is the one who lost all. Whether steeped in convexity or aether pure, world's destroyer or savior, nothing is sure.
1. Null

Nothing lasts forever. Nothing is eternal. Everything is lost in the elemental turmoil.

* * *

The world was destroyed, and yet it was not. Fragments of burning rock that had been flung into the air returned to the world's core, massive chunks of land the size of continents slowly pulled back into their proper places, and at the center of it all were two dragons. One was purple, the other an ebon shade.

As the chunks of earth returned to their rightful places, and the dragon realms were restored, all was peaceful.

At this time, in this age of peace, dragons prospered. What once was a dying race began to flourish again. Dragons that had hidden from Malefor's dark armies once more emerged to see the world. Dragons of elements that had previously been thought extinct.

Wind dragons, as rare as they were, returned in force. Dragons with elements of shadow, though shunned at first, appeared from their hiding places to see the world after Malefor's defeat. New elements appeared, appearing from what seemed like nowhere.

All was calm.

But the job of the Chronicler is to document the events of a new era, to ensure that the world goes on. If there were no events, there would be no need for a Chronicler.

It should probably be stated, peace doesn't exactly bring many noteworthy events.

Peace so rarely lasts, either.

* * *

In a small village, far from the dragon city of Warfang or the dragon temple of legend, there was unrest.

Not spread throughout the village, as it was not a great issue, but it meant the world to two parents living there.

"It's not natural, Jaya," A deep voice protested. "The egg was dead, colorless. Even spirit gems could not restore its color, and we used hundreds! It should not have hatched at all."

"Teneris! You cannot just dismiss this miracle! Our son survived, and that is all that matters." Jaya pulled the hatchling closer to herself, warming the child.

"It does not even have an element," Teneris continued.

"Does he need one? The purple dragon has ensured peace, now that _he_ is gone." Jaya gently nuzzled her child, her amber eyes twinkling in the firelight.

Teneris sighed, looking at the sleeping hatchling. "It is unnatural."

"You keep saying that." The blue dragoness retorted. She shifted the hatchling to a cushion, curling up around it. "Yet I see it as a gift from the Ancestors."

The dark scaled shadow dragon sighed again, and was silent for a few moments. "What should we name it?"

Jaya was lost in thought, closing her eyes as she considered. "I do not know."

Both of the dragons remained silent, the only sound the crackling of the fire. When at last Teneris spoke, he spoke quietly. "Null."

"Null? As in, nothing?" Jaya opened her eyes, looking at Teneris with an angry glare.

"It has no element, it would be a fitting name," Teneris reasoned. "After all, is it not tradition to name a child after their element?"

"Very well then." Jaya's voice was calmer, more accepting. "Null."

* * *

"He's so… strange," The teacher commented, looking out the window. The hatchlings were all outside playing together, likely a game of tag.

"How so?" Jaya asked.

"He always has odd mannerisms, and everything he touches just… fails," Ferrus explained. The iron-scaled earth dragon shook his head. "The other day we were going over elements and their properties, but he continued to ignore what I said. When I asked him why he wasn't paying attention, he replied that he would never need to know about the elements."

Outside, one boisterous hatchling ran into another, smaller hatchling. The larger of the two got up and ran off, but the smaller remained on the ground.

"I know you said he has no element, but I cannot help but wonder if it's suppressed." Ferrus watched Null, the young dragon who had been knocked over. "He has the coloration of a shadow dragon, if that shadow dragon was covered in grass stains. Even if he has no element, it does not explain the spirit gems. He absorbed a whole cluster of the green gems just the other day, but they had no effect on him. It's self-contradicting."

Null finally climbed to his paws, shaking the dirt off of his dark green scales. Looking at the others playing, Null sighed deeply and walked off, resting under a tree.

"His energy is odd too. At some times he is full of energy, ready to act. Yet at others, he is so tired, as though he hasn't slept in days. It fluctuates almost randomly," Ferrus continued. "I cannot help but wonder if he has some element that is as yet undiscovered. So many are popping up these days. Just a week ago a dragon passed through who claimed to speak to the dead."

Ferrus sighed. "I cannot help but wonder what goes through his head…"

* * *

"I wanna be like Spyro!" Apex announced, jumping up on a rock. The wind dragon always had an overactive imagination, and so often said things without prompting.

"Why?" Null asked. He didn't really understand the other hatchlings. They were so energetic all the time, and they always made such huge leaps in logic. It made no sense. You had to follow logic all the way through, otherwise you would make mistakes.

"Because he saved the world," Apex said as though it was obvious. "He's a hero!"

"But what did he do?" Null inquired curiously. He had heard some of the stories of the purple dragon who saved the world, but not many.

"Spyro killed the Destroyer, and the Golem, and he defeated the Terror of the Skies, and he took down the Skavengers!" Apex said all of it without taking a breath, only now pausing to breathe.

"Who's the Terror of the Skies?" Null thought he recognized the title, but he wasn't sure.

"You don't know who Cynder is?!" Apex's jaw dropped.

"Oh. Spyro's mate, Cynder?" Null tilted his head.

"Yeah, her." Apex's normal energetic attitude dampened. "She's scary. My dad says that she's still under Malefor's control, because if she wasn't she would have lost her fear, poison, and shadow elements. Dad also says that she'll probably turn back into that monster again when she's fully grown, so the guardians need to keep an eye on her."

"Didn't Cynder help Spyro defeat Malefor?" Null asked.

"Yeah, but she used to work for Malefor. She might just be waiting until we trust her before she brings him back. That's what dad says." Apex shuddered.

Null was silent as he thought. "I wanna be like Cynder."

"Why?" Apex almost screeched.

"Because without Cynder, Spyro wouldn't have beat Malefor," Null explained. "And nobody trusts me, or shadow dragons. Nobody trusts Cynder, but she saved the world anyways."

"You're weird, Null." Apex muttered, hopping down from the rock and walking off.

Null just watched him go, confused. "Why doesn't anyone ever understand?"

* * *

"Why doesn't anyone ever understand?"

As an adolescent dragon, life was more or less hellish for Null. He was always feeling sick and weak, and spirit gems rarely did anything to help it. Coordination was pretty impossible, seeing as his body was in the middle of growing. He often found himself tripping over his own paws or cutting himself with his sharper tailblade.

The biggest problem wasn't even him, it was his element. Rather, his lack of an element. It was infuriating, not being able to connect to any elements. The worst part was how others treated him. As though he were some other species, or had deliberately blocked his element. Sometimes he wished he was another species, that way he wouldn't have to deal with other dragons treating him as inferior.

Null padded out of the village, heading to his favorite place to relax. It may have just been a simple cave full of spirit gems, but it was calming.

At least, as long as he didn't accidentally touch any more clusters…

When he eventually reached the cave, something felt off. Null had always had better senses than most other dragons, and he prided himself on that. He wasn't fast, he wasn't strong, and he lacked an element, but he was smart and he was observant.

Null breathed in the scent, then sighed. "Apex, where are you?"

"Every time…" The white dragon dropped from the ceiling. He had grown into quite an impressive young dragon, with a finned tail and an impressive wingspan, it wasn't difficult to tell that he was built for flying. He shook his head. "How do you do it?"

"You didn't even try to disguise your scent this time," Null answered, looking around at the spirit gems. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of them in the cave, and Null hadn't even gone very far in. He paused in front of one particular spirit gem, its color drained and turned to a reflective black. He looked at his reflection.

His red eyes, his almost undernourished and skeletal form, and his ebony black horns gave plenty of people reasons to call him a demon. Null shook his head and looked away. That gem was his fault. He never should have tried to break a gem while angry.

"Y'know, I've always wondered how spirit gems work. They shatter at the slightest touch, grow back in mere minutes, and they heal and energize dragons." Apex poked a green spirit gem, causing part of the crystal to break off and shatter on the ground. The green fragments flew through the air and sank into his scales. "It's really weird."

"You think everything is weird." Null shot Apex a glance.

"That's because nothing in this world makes any sense," Apex shot back. He slowly padded over to the colorless spirit gem. "What happened to this one?"

Null sighed. "I did."

"Whoah, you transformed a spirit gem?" Apex circled the gem, his glimmering blue eyes locked on it. "I thought you didn't have an element."

"I didn't transform it, it's dead." Null poked the gem, showing that it didn't shatter like it should. "It's just a crystal structure now."

"You took the spirit out of a spirit gem." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Apex just looked at Null and blinked. "That's… weird."

"You think everything is weird." Null sighed, sinking down to lay on the cave floor.

Apex sighed as well, lying next to him. "I'm sorry about the others."

Null blinked. "Why? You didn't make them hate me."

"That doesn't make me less sorry. Dad hates you because he's a racist and prejudiced bigot, mom hates you because she's weakminded and shallow, all the other dragons our age are just morons." Apex took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. "And I'm sorry about your dad."

"Again, it's not your fault." It did hurt though, to be reminded of his father. Teneris had left them a few years ago, because he couldn't deal with having a 'freak' as his child. Mom had done her best, but there was only so much a single dragoness could do.

"At least you don't treat me like a freak," Null said.

"Hey, if I wasn't your friend, nobody would be." Apex grinned. "But you are a freak."

Null could feel a smile twitching at the edges of his mouth. "Oh, and you aren't? Last I checked, you're the one who downed half of a boar in a single go."

"Hey, it takes a lot of fuel to keep this machine going." Apex laughed. "And you're the one who was so confused about games. I thought you didn't know what fun was!"

"Tag does not make sense. Why run in circles chasing one another? It's such a waste of energy," Null protested with a laugh in his tone.

"Okay, got me there," Apex admitted. He looked around the cave again, then stood up. "Hey, did you ever see what was further down?"

"No." Null shook his head. "It isn't safe."

"Oh c'mon! We're both almost fifteen years old, how dangerous could it be? Spyro was younger than us when _he_ went on his adventure."

And that was Apex's trump card. He knew full well how much Null looked up to Spyro and Cynder, the saviors of the world. How much he would love to follow in their footsteps, to gain the acceptance he craved.

"Fine." Null pushed himself up. "Let's go see what's down there."

"Alright!" Apex immediately darted off into the cave, slipping between the spirit gems like a snake through the grass.

Null rolled his eyes and followed. Apex left a clear scent trail through the cave, even if his serpentine body had vanished from sight already.

As he followed his white-scaled companion through the cave, Null was careful to avoid touching the spirit gems. He didn't want to kill another cluster, that just seemed… disrespectful. It was forbidden to attack the roots of a spirit gem cluster because it would kill the cluster, so killing them by touching them felt even worse. Spirit gems were a gift from the ancestors and were to be treasured and appreciated.

Although this winding tunnel was a pain in the tail…

"What do you think is down here?" Apex asked excitedly. "Treasure? Magic armor? Maybe some of the rare blue spirit gems?"

"Probably more rock." Null suggested, carefully slipping past two tightly packed red spirit gems.

Apex gasped. "You're gonna want to see this."

"See what? More spirit gems? More rock? Maybe an underground…" He trailed off as he emerged into a massive cavern.

The height of the cavern was impossible in magnitude, more than enough for a full-grown dragon to fly around multiple times. Incredible growths of crystals were scattered around the cavern, with streams of pure water flowing through and around them. The water pooled around the edge of the cavern, flowing into the massive pit that was the center.

Both of the young dragons slowly inched forwards, looking down into the pit. Just barely visible was a glimmer of purple at the bottom. Apex peeked over the edge. "Wonder what's down there…"

Then, before Null could stop him, the wind dragon launched himself down into the pit.

"Apex, you stupid idiot!" Null threw himself after his friend, not willing to allow him to plummet to his death.

The air rushed past Null's face as he began falling faster and faster. He had no clue how far down this pit went down, and he half suspected it didn't have a true bottom.

Maybe it went down to the core?

But wait, that was… ridiculous.

Right?

Eventually something came into sight, far down the pit. A glimmering purple crystal, far larger than any gemstones that Null had ever seen. It kind of reminded him of spirit gems, but far more massive. He could almost feel the energy radiating off of it, further cementing the idea that it was some sort of spirit gem.

"Whoa…" Apex slowly descended. "What _is_ this?"

Null slowed himself to a halt in the air, hovering above the massive crystal. If it was a spirit gem of some sort, he didn't want to risk causing it to die like the other one.

Apex, however, had no such qualms. He quickly landed on the giant purple crystal, marveling at the refraction of light off of the surface. "This is amazing! It's like, some sort of mega spirit gem!"

"Apex, maybe we should go now…" Null muttered. Something didn't feel right about this place.

"I dunno… it's so… shiny." Apex trailed off, staring into the heart of the crystal.

Null slowly flew closer, trying to grab his friend's attention. "We really should leave now."

"No…" Apex looked up, his cerulean eyes nothing more than a luminous white. "I think we'll stay here."

The white dragon's scales had wisps of grey snaking through them, slowly overtaking the normal coloration and changing him into something far more sinister. With a vicious snarl, Apex launched himself at Null, crashing into the dark green dragon and causing the two to hit the crystal with a thud.

Then, just like that, Apex's color returned to normal, and his luminous eyes dimmed back to blue. "What… what just happened?"

"Apex, what the hell?!" Null sputtered.

"I… this crystal's weird, man. Let's get out of here." Apex quickly flapped his wings, rising above the crystal. "I swear, that wasn't me."

"Yeah, whatever." Null shook his head and pushed himself off of the purple crystal. "I told you not to touch it."

"I should've listened." Apex shuddered. "That was so weird."

"You think everything is weird."

"Yeah, but that was just… weird. I wasn't me." Apex shook his head.

"That makes no sense," Null replied, looking down at the crystal and finding himself shivering. He thought he saw something moving, deep within the gemstone. "Let's get out of here."

"I'm with you there…"

Apex summoned a strong updraft of wind, pushing the two young dragons well out of the pit and back into the cave of spirit gems.

But what neither of them expected to happen was for a strange effect to take place within the crystal that they had landed on. Arcs of purple lightning shot from the core of the world, each one striking at the surrounding earth and sending a shockwave of elemental power coursing through the planet.

And in the core of the crystal, a soul far more powerful than anything else the world had ever known opened its luminous yellow eyes.

The elemental turmoil has begun.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **So, I've been a fan of the Spyro games ever since I could remember. Heck, one of the original games was among the first video games I've ever played. Unfortunately, I missed out very, very sorely when The Legend of Spyro trilogy was in its heyday, and only recently have I found it. Skylanders was a disappointment. Though not bad in and of itself, it just isn't Spyro. Unfortunately, it may be the reason we never get another real Spyro game.**

 **But I digress. This is just the first chapter of a fic that I really don't know where I'm going with. Yet. I'll have a grand story and sequels plotted out by chapter three. Until then, enjoy what I have so far.**

 **In case it wasn't blatantly obvious, this is set after DotD.**

 **Please, review and let me know what you think!**

 **Now read on!**


	2. Disaster

"That was so weird."

"You've said," Null replied. "Repeatedly."

"Yeah, but it _felt_ like a spirit gem. Like, you know what if feels like to absorb a spirit gem and regain your elemental power?" Apex asked.

"No."

"It was like that, but it was also like someone reached into my head and just took control. Like I was a puppet." Apex shuddered. "And all I could do was just watch as I tackled you."

"Which hurt, by the way."

"But at the same time, I felt so strong! So powerful! Like I could flick a claw and cause the world to explode!" Apex jumped up onto a rock outcropping. "I felt like I could do anything!"

"Good for you."

"I wonder if that's how the purple dragon feels. All the power in the world at your clawtips, just waiting to be used." Apex sighed, jumping down from the rock outcropping. He slowly padded up to a green spirit gem. "It was so weird…"

"Uh-huh."

"You're not even listening at this point!" Apex accused, turning to glare at Null. "I'm telling you, it was awesome and creepy and terrifying all at once!"

"…Then why didn't it do anything when I touched it?" Null asked quietly.

Apex was silent. He turned to look at the spirit gem again, breaking off a chunk and absorbing the green stones. "I don't know."

"I just ruin everything I touch." Null sighed, carefully slipping past a spirit gem and stopping as he stood next to the cluster he had accidentally killed. He stared at the lightless gems for a while, then turned to look at Apex. "Just like these spirit gems."

"That's still bugging me," Apex muttered. "You absorb the gems, but you can't touch them? Why? Why can you even absorb green gems when you have no element? Red gems make sense since they heal you directly, but the green ones just restore your elemental reserves."

"Not for me," Null said bitterly, continuing out of the cave.

"Why do you always have to be so glum about that, Null?" Apex darted around in front of his friend. "You're the smartest dragon I know! You figured out how those grublins were getting into the storage shed, and that was almost six years ago!"

"The hole was just hidden behind a crate," Null muttered.

"Okay, and who was the top of the class in every single year of school?" Apex prodded.

"Me, because I didn't have friends to distract me from studying."

"And who saved those kids from a rock troll?" The wind dragon continued.

"You did."

"Only after you told me how to do it! I would have been flattened if you hadn't pointed out how that troll had a hitch in its shoulder!" Apex insisted.

"I forced you to do it because I was too weak. I'm always too weak. Always too slow. Always too…" Null kicked a rock, causing it to fling into a cluster of spirit gems and shatter them. He sighed. "Me."

"Always be you, because if you aren't then who are you supposed to be," Apex said sagely.

Null shot Apex a sidelong glance. "Do you even understand that?"

"Not at all, but it sounded wise and I read it in a book somewhere." The wind dragon grinned widely.

Null shook his head and started walking again, chuckling softly. "By the ancestors, you're such a doofus."

" _That's_ the Null I was looking for!" Apex cheered, trotting up beside the dark green dragon. "Now that I have you back, I have a question I need to ask you."

"About the crystal, right? It reminds me of a story…" Null trailed off.

"Which story?" Apex asked eagerly.

"A story about the Destroyer, lemme think…" Null paused for a moment, then quoted from memory. "The heart of the Destroyer was a dark and twisted crystal, a spirit gem corrupted by Convexity. But in previous appearances, when the cause of the end was natural, its driving magic was a purple spirit gem drawn straight from the…" He hesitated. "…From the heart of the world."

"Two things." Apex held out his paw to stop Null, then put up two claws. "One, you knew that from memory? Holy crap your mind is a steel trap. Two. The heart of the world. Explain, please."

"Well, according to the legends," Null began. "And I'm not saying this is true, but according to the legends the heart of the world is a spirit gem of unimaginable power. The legends say that the ancestors reside within the spirit gem, providing it with their elemental energy. It's from this one spirit gem that the others sprout, the elemental energy being diluted as it flows through the world so that it doesn't kill a dragon on touch."

"So…" Apex hesitated. "Does that mean that the giant purple crystal might've been-,"

"Hold that thought," Null interrupted, sniffing the air. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. That was a scent he hadn't had the displeasure of smelling since…

Since the storehouse mystery.

"Grublins," The dark green dragon hissed, lowering his stance.

The nasty creatures smelled like a mix between rot, mold, and maggots, with their insectlike bodies covered in random plant detritus and moss. Common belief held that the little pests were the creations of Malefor, during the war, but Null knew better. Texts showed that they had existed far before even Malefor, if you knew where to look.

But there was another smell that made the presence of grublins all the worse. Smoke.

"We need to get back to the village. Now." Null immediately began to run through the forest, not trusting his wings to carry him.

"What? Why?" Apex asked, launching after him and quickly matching his pace.

"There are grublins attacking the village." Null leaped over a small stream, stumbling as he tried to keep his footing.

"Whoah, whoah." Apex rushed forwards and supported his smaller friend. "How can you tell?"

"I can smell it. The village is upwind of us, blowing the scent here. If there was no wind, I wouldn't even know…" Null pushed himself off of the white dragon, propelling himself forwards once more. "But we need to get back, now!"

"Can't the elders handle it? Old Ferrus is a master of combat magic, and your mother can put out the fires with a blast of water," Apex reasoned, still easily keeping up with Null.

"I have a bad feeling…" Null muttered, not slowing. "A very, very bad feeling."

Indeed, the scent of smoke was only getting stronger as the young dragons drew closer to the village, and soon enough Apex could smell it too. There was another scent that was making Null uneasy, one that he didn't recognize at all.

The village soon came into sight, and it was exactly as Null feared.

Grublins were everywhere, carrying flaming torches and setting fire to anything that would burn, and a few things that wouldn't. Almost every building was on fire, with the schoolhouse being the only structure that wasn't yet burning. Ferrus was there, using his mastery of his earth element to keep the grublins at bay.

Null was about to launch himself into the chaos to help, only to stagger back as the smoke hit him like a hammer. He began coughing, unable to handle the smoke entering his lungs.

Apex, however, had no such issues. He easily held his own in the smoke filled street, using his wind element to not only keep the air around himself clear, but also to strike down the grublins. He wielded wind like a blade, causing gusts to form into surprisingly sharp pulses of air that sliced through the grublins with ease. Even the few that managed to slip past his elemental defense were cut down quickly by his claws.

Null cursed his fate. He was weak and helpless, without even an element to back himself up. All he could do was watch and try to recover from smoke inhalation as Apex saved the day.

But the dark green dragon was determined to not be useless. He began to make his way around the outskirts of the village, using his coloration to slip from shadow to shadow in the tree line as he did so. All would have gone well, if he hadn't tripped over a tree root.

The noise alerted a small group of grublins to his location. Null cringed at his blunder, drawing deeper into the poor shadows. Even though it was nearing sundown, there was no way the grublins could possibly miss him. The creatures may have been stupid, but they weren't blind.

It was fortunate for Null, then, that two dragons noticed this small group of grublins breaking off from the village. One, a feisty red dragon by the name of Althus, unleashed a stream of fire onto the insectoid creatures. The other continued past the burning grublins, heading towards Null.

"I knew it! You did this!" The dragon, an electricity dragon named Amp accused. He vanished in a flash of electricity, reappearing directly in front of Null. He grabbed the scrawny dragon with his claws, pinning him to a tree trunk.

"Amp! Amp please!" Null gasped. "Stop!"

"Why should I? You brought these grublins here, no doubt, you little freak!" Amp growled, shoving Null's face into the tree. "Tell me why I shouldn't just kill you here for your crimes!"

"I didn't-," Null tried to protest, only to have the air blown out of his lungs again by a furious blow from the yellow dragon.

"What've you got there, Amp?" Althus asked, padding over calmly now that the grublins were a pile of ash.

"Just a traitorous little freak," Amp answered. "He probably brought the grublins here, otherwise he'd have been in the village when they attacked."

"Oh really?" Althus jabbed Null with his tailblade. "Is that why he's skulking in the shadows? Because he's watching his handiwork?"

"Let me go," Null wheezed. "You have to let me go. I need to see if Mom's alri- Gah!"

Althus smacked Null across the face. "Stop lying, freak. You don't care about anyone, just like your demon father."

"And what do you two think you're doing to my friend?"

Both of the bullies turned to look at the newcomer. Amp snarled. "Oh, it's the village idiot."

"Really? Last I checked I wasn't the one who was attacking the _one_ dragon who has no ability to hurt anyone instead of, oh, I dunno, _saving the village_!" Apex shot back. "Now back off!"

"How do we know he didn't bring the grublins here?" Althus asked, not moving an inch.

"Because he was with me all day, ashbrain. Now you and sparky need to get back in there and stop torturing Null," Apex growled.

The electricity and fire dragon glanced at one another, then Amp let Null go. "This isn't over, freak."

Both of the bullies flew back towards the village as Null fell to the ground. He could barely breathe, and the smoke in the air wasn't helping any. He lay there panting for a bit as Apex cleared the air of smoke, then eventually managed to climb to his feet.

"Did you see my mom?" Null rasped.

"No, but I'm sure she's fine. She can take care of herself. You should worry more about yourself." Apex shook his head. "I'm sorry I forgot about you. I'm a crappy friend."

"If you were a crappy friend, you wouldn't have saved my tail from those two meatheads," Null retorted, slowing his breathing to a normal level. "Let's go."

Apex led the way through the thick smog that lay over the town. Many of the grublins had died already, either by dragon claws, elements, or their own mismanagement of fire.

But there was still an odd scent on the breeze, one that made Null feel as though the worst had yet to come.

Null could hear Ferrus shouting over the crackling of the fire.

"Where have you two been? The village catches fire, and the both of you vanish!" The old dragon berated. He was glaring down at Amp and Althus, the two dragons both trying to hide behind the other.

"Sir, we saw Null at the village outskirts, and-," Althus tried to explain.

"And what, young dragon? Hmm?" Ferrus lowered his head until he was staring Althus in the eye. "I'm aware how you feel about Null, and I find it unfounded. So choose your words very, very carefully."

"We thought he was working with the grublins!" Amp spat out all in one go.

Althus turned to look at his friend in horror. Amp always had a penchant for speaking without thinking, but this was just suicidal.

"You are aware, then, that I sent Apex to watch over him when he left the village this morning?" Ferrus asked.

"Er, Apex informed us that he was with the frea- erm, Null, all day," Althus stuttered.

"And no doubt you are wondering why he left the village at all?" Ferrus continued. "Or do you already know the answer?"

Both of the young dragons bowed their heads in response, giving Ferrus every answer he needed.

"You two are on repair duty." Ferrus straightened, dismissing the bullies.

Amp and Althus scurried off, not once looking back at Ferrus. They even ran past Apex and Null without noticing the duo.

"Ferrus sent you after me?" Null asked. He wasn't hurt by the potential thought that Apex wouldn't have come after him anyways; he knew the wind dragon better than that. But he was curious as to the reasoning.

"Yeah, he wanted to make sure you didn't…" Apex trailed off, realizing that he had already blurted out the first part.

"Didn't what?" Null's brow furrowed.

"Do anything you would regret," Apex murmured. He shook his head and cleared his throat. "I wanted to keep you company anyways."

"Null! Apex!" Ferrus greeted, padding over. The old dragon's iron scales shimmered in the waning sunlight, the flecks of rust on them seeming more like blood. Ferrus was an odd one, among earth dragons. Biologically at least. His scales were composed mostly of metal, a phenomenon that was not unheard of but was far from common.

"I'm glad to see that the two of you are alright," Ferrus said with a sigh of relief. "We've wiped out the grublins, and we're going to start extinguishing the fires. Can you boys help?"

"Where's Mom?" Null asked.

"Your mother was out at the stream when the grublins attacked. She should be back any minute now-," Ferrus was interrupted by a cry of distress.

Before Null could react, a sapphire colored shape had grabbed him and pulled him close. "Oh, I'm so glad to see you're alright! I was so worried about you! You didn't get hurt, did you? Did you breathe in any smoke?"

"Mom, I'm fine," Null protested, his voice muffled. "I was worried about you."

"It's okay, I'm here now." Jaya kissed Null on top of his head.

Null nuzzled closer to his mother, not ashamed to admit that he had been terrified. And yet…

The dark green dragon stiffened. "Something's wrong…"

"It's okay now," Jaya soothed.

"No." Null squirmed out of his mother's grip, landing on the ground. His eyes were wide. "It's not okay now. Something's coming. Something big."

"What is it, Null?" Apex asked. Of all of them, he knew Null the best. The scrawny dragon didn't lie, he never had any reason to.

"I don't know. I don't know." He put his paws on his head. "I can smell it, I can hear it, but I can't identify it!"

Ferrus straightened. "He's right. Something is coming, and it's causing the earth to vibrate."

It didn't take long for the others to feel the vibrations in the earth, like the footsteps of a goliath. Null stood up straight, backing away from the direction that the scent was coming from. He could sense it getting closer and closer.

"It's here," Null whispered.

As if on cue, a massive creature broke through the tree line. It was easily twice as tall as any building in the village, supported by two legs like pillars of stone. Its midriff was hollow, resembling a ribcage with ribs of stone and a heart made out of twisted crystals. It had two burly limbs attached to its torso, both composed of random stone and detritus and bound together by tree roots and vines. A blocky head composed of boulders and even more of the dark crystals took the place of its head. All around the giant monster were grublins, swarming about its feet and climbing all over its body. The beast looked down at the town with its crystalline eyes and roared, its lower jaw splitting into three separate pieces.

"By the ancestors…" Ferrus murmured. "An elemental… I had thought them gone with the destruction of Malefor…"

"Evidently not," Jaya growled, dropping into a combat stance. "Kids, you need to run."

"We're not going to-," Apex tried to protest.

"Now is not the time for argument," Ferrus snarled, preparing for combat himself. "Get out of here, and allow us to handle it."

"Y-yes sir." Apex nudged Null. "Let's go."

The young dragons started running, but Null couldn't help but watch over his shoulder.

Ferrus was using his mastery of earth to slow the elemental, creating pits where the creature put its feet down. At the same time, he was causing the grublins to fall into miniature fissures that closed soon after. The few that made it through the veritable gauntlet of pitfalls and earth blasts couldn't even scratch his metallic scales, and were downed in a matter of moments by a smack from his tail or a swipe of his claws.

Null turned away, trying desperately not to trip over the rubble all over the village. He dodged around a charred spar, glancing back once more.

Jaya was putting in just as much effort as the elderly earth dragon was, releasing blasts of elemental water from her mouth in order to chip off parts of the elemental's body. She flew around the elemental's head, swiping at the crystals that sprouted from its body and causing them to crack. With a ferocious roar, Jaya crushed one of the crystals, and the elemental's head broke in two.

"Well done Jaya!" Ferrus cheered. It seemed like they might defeat the elemental yet.

Neither of them expected one of its hulking limbs to reach up and smack the water dragoness out of the air.

"No!" Null screamed, skidding to a halt. He immediately reversed direction, screaming so hard that he felt as though his lungs would burst.

"Null! Don't!" Apex shouted. From somewhere. It felt like it was a thousand miles away.

Null didn't care. His mother was the only family he had. He wasn't going to leave her. Not now. Not with this monster looming over the village.

He didn't even notice the grublins as he slipped past them, his smaller stature allowing him to dart between the grublins without brushing against the insectlike creatures. It didn't take him long to reach his mother's side.

"Mom! Mom! You have to get up!" Null poked her with his snout, trying and failing to ignore the bone that was poking out of her leg.

Jaya stirred weakly, opening her amber eyes. "Null… get out of here."

"I'm not leaving you!" Null insisted, trying to push her upright.

"Run…" Jaya coughed, and Null couldn't deny the sound of fluid in her lungs. "Don't die for me."

"I'm not leaving you," Null sobbed, feeling tears welling up in his eyes. He lowered his head and nudged his mother's sapphire head with his snout. "I'm not leaving you…"

Jaya pushed Null away with what little strength she had left. "Run…"

"Mom, please!" Null cried, nuzzling against his mother's scales. "I'm not going to leave you here!"

"I'm so… so sorry." Jaya took a deep shuddering breath, only to cough out blood. "I love you, my little miracle…"

The dragoness's eyes closed, tears already drying on her face.

"Mom? Mom?!" Null pushed at his mother, tears streaming down his face. "Don't leave me! Don't leave me, Mom, please!"

Try as he might, there was nothing the scrawny dragon could do to move his mother. He was simply too weak, too frail to try and get her out of the battlefield. Null refused to leave his mother there, where the grublins could get her.

The ground shook.

Or the elemental.

"You killed her!" Null screamed at the giant monster, blinded by rage and tears.

Another dragon would have used a fury, a powerful elemental attack fueled by emotion and desperation. The problem with this is that a fury requires the user to actually _have_ elemental energy. Null had none.

Blinded by his rage, Null didn't once think about that. All he knew was that the elemental had killed his mother, and he was going to make it pay.

Null launched himself off of the ground towards the elemental's ribcage, flapping his wings once, twice to gain the necessary height to slip between the stone ribs.

With claws outstretched, the dark green dragon grabbed onto the dark crystal that was the elemental's heart.

Then the world collapsed.


	3. Apex

It was something he had only experienced once before, when he hadn't been expecting it. He imagined it was like what others felt when they absorbed spirit gems, having so much raw energy flowing through them and renewing their magic stores. Such a massive amount of elemental energy, it almost made him feel like there wasn't a hole in his being where magic should be. Almost made him feel as though he wasn't a scrawny undernourished runt.

Null could _feel_ the energy of the dark crystal draining, and he felt as though justice was being served. The crystals that Spyro and Cynder had to destroy had drained their elements, and here he was draining one of those crystals of all the magic it had stolen.

When it was complete, the crystal was as fragile as any spirit gem.

Time is such a strange thing. In the moment, it can feel like eternities pass, yet when it is over only a second has passed.

Or less, when speaking of a collapsing elemental.

Null was barely conscious of the stone tomb he had been encased in, only seeing the faint purple light of the dying crystal in his claws. As he stared at the core of the crystal, he could swear he saw a pair of eyes looking back, before the purple light faded entirely and he was left in total darkness.

Only now did the enormity of events come flooding back to him.

She was dead. Jaya, his only family, was dead. She was dead because of this monster. And now he had killed it and avenged her, and it wasn't enough. It wouldn't bring his mother back. Nothing would bring his mother back.

In the complete darkness of the elemental's remains, Null cried.

* * *

"Null! Don't!" Apex cried out, sliding to a stop and turning around. The dark green dragon had streaked off back into the conflict, even after being specifically told not to.

To be honest, Apex didn't blame him.

When he caught sight of the sapphire form, Apex felt as though his heart had broken. Missus Jaya had always been so nice to him, acting like a real mother when his own parents had chosen to ignore him for his views. If anything, she had been the one to raise him, rather than the two who happened to be his parents.

Cursing under his breath, Apex took to the air. There was no way in hell that he was letting Null run into a horde of grublins, even if Ferrus had told the both of them to run.

It was just as well that Apex was the one who had been top of the class in combat training, because he was finding himself using it constantly.

The grublins were hurling spears into the air in an attempt to hit him, but none of them even got close. His element made sure of that. Still, the few times he descended to take out a grublin in close quarters he found himself swarmed by the stick thin insects. After a couple of close calls, he quickly decided to just take them out with wind blasts from afar. It was a better tactic for helping Null, too, as he could take out those grublins that spotted his frail friend without needing to swoop down and attack with his claws.

As soon as Null reached his mother, Apex knew he would need to cause a diversion to keep the grublins away. He quickly looked around, ignoring Ferrus' roars to run, and finally spotted the distraction he needed.

"Alright, rockhead! You and me!" Apex snarled, flying towards the massive elemental. Immediately the grublins below began to panic, as if sensing that their living siege engine was in danger.

Apex was never exactly the most studious dragon, but this reminded him of something from a book. A primitive culture worshipping a godlike figure. In the book it was a stone guardian of sorts, so this elemental wasn't too far off from that scenario. In any event, the grublins certainly seemed to follow the elemental, instead of the other way around.

And they most certainly did not like when he started to slash at the crystals in the monster's head.

He knew full well that the crystals were draining his element, but he didn't care at the moment. If it kept the grublins away from Null, it was worth it. He began to feel his wind barrier dying out, so shut it down himself to conserve energy. He was agile enough to avoid the spears anyways.

"You killed her!"

Apex nearly froze to the bone at that scream of rage. He knew it was Null, he recognized the voice, but Null had never sounded so _angry_. Sure, he got irritated, and occasionally ranted about things, but he was never as infuriated as this.

The wind dragon flew around the elemental, dodging what was, to him, a clumsy swing. As he caught sight of Null, his eyes widened. There was no way the little dragon could make it, he would be cut down or crushed before he could even get close to the hulking elemental.

Desperation filled the wind dragon. He may have been the best in his class, but he was by no means skilled enough to take down that many grublins _or_ to slow the elemental enough to allow Null to survive.

He saw a giant stone hand swinging through the air towards his friend, and that was when he lost control of his element.

Many furies result in mass destruction or death, or simply fail due to the user's own deficit of elemental energy. Those that succeed almost invariably weaken the user, and in the case of one who had no elemental energy remaining could possibly kill them.

Yet Apex thought of none of this, releasing elemental energy and tapping into stores of magic that he didn't even know he had, causing the winds to flock to his command. Thousands of blades of air manifested, slicing into the horde of grublins and decimating the insect creatures by the dozens. The outer edge of the effect of the fury became a globe of hardened air, stopping the elemental's fist in its tracks and keeping more grublins from converging on his friend's position.

Then, almost without warning, the fury gave out, and Apex fell to the ground, spent.

Almost simultaneously, the elemental collapsed.

Like a building collapsing, the elemental fell apart. Its arms fell off of its torso in chunks, while its stone ribcage fell forwards and crashed into the ground. The two towers of the monstrous elemental's legs fell apart as well, until the only reminder of its existence was the partially intact head, the crystals inside fading to dark.

But it wasn't a victory. It wasn't over until Apex located Null. He knew that the dark green dragon had been running towards the elemental, and suspected that it was something Null had done that destroyed it.

Even though he barely had enough energy to stand, Apex scurried towards the wreckage of the elemental, digging through the rubble frantically.

"Come on, come on, you have to be in here…" Apex, scrambled over to the torso of the monster, trying and failing to shift the massive stone.

He didn't know how long he was pushing at the thing before wingbeats alerted him to others. Apex didn't care. He needed to get to Null.

"Apex, it's dead." Ferrus' voice came from far away.

"Null, Null's in there." Apex murmured, still trying to lift the rock. His tired muscles could barely take it anymore, and he found himself on his side, unable to so much as stand.

"Stand back." Ferrus gently pushed Apex away from the boulder, warding back other figures with his wings. The iron-scaled dragon raised one paw, then slammed it into the stone torso, causing a fissure to appear in the rock.

The elderly dragon struck the rock a second, then a third time, eventually causing the entire thing to break open.

Apex was about to push himself forwards, to see what was inside, but Amp shoved past.

"Hah, the little runt's crying." The electricity dragon jeered.

Before he knew what he was doing, Apex had his claw around the yellow dragon's throat and had pinned him to the rock. He leaned close, his eyes boring holes into Amp's. When he spoke, it was a low hiss. "His mother was struck down and he still tried to attack this monster. That's more than can be said for you, don't you think?"

"Y-yeah, but-,"

"But what?" Apex hissed. "You've been coddled your whole life, but he hasn't. You have both your parents, and you're normal. He's been shunned because of an accident of birth and his father left him. Now his mother's dead, and you think it's funny to poke fun at his pain?"

"Apex!" Ferrus's voice finally broke through Apex's anger. "That's enough!"

The wind dragon let go of the yellow, stepping off to one side. As soon as his anger faded, he felt like he could barely walk. Where had that come from? Normally he was the sort to let it slide quickly, but there he had felt as though he wanted to slice the electricity dragon apart.

"Apex?" A weak voice called out.

Apex turned his head to see Null. The frail dragon may have had tears in his eyes, but the look of concern was unmistakable.

"Hey buddy." Apex gave a weak smile. "You killed it."

"Y-yeah…" Null looked down at his paws. "I don't know how, though. I just… I couldn't… I had to kill it. To rip its heart out."

"We might make a warrior out of you yet." Apex chuckled.

Apex was about to start walking when his knees buckled suddenly. He found himself falling, but Null rushed up and pressed against his side to keep him upright. Much to Apex's surprise, his weight didn't cause the smaller dragon to immediately collapse. He was about to mention it, but the words died in his throat as he noticed where Null was looking.

A sapphire blue form, marred by the red of blood and the white of exposed and broken bone. Once graceful wings were bent unnaturally out of shape. All along the membrane were tears and holes, put there by the unnatural force of the elemental's swing. Just looking at Jaya's body from even this far away was enough to make tears prick at the edges of Apex's eyes.

Apex nudged Null, and the two young dragons started to walk towards the sapphire dragoness. Even from this distance Apex could see that she was not breathing, could sense the air around her standing still.

It made him want to just stop there and cry. It really did. Jaya was a wonderful person, she had been more like a parent to him than his own mother and father.

 **xXx**

"And what do you think you're doing?"

Apex looked up from the paper he was writing. Ferrus had given everyone a written assignment that they needed to complete at home, and so far it was giving Apex a horrible time. Paw cramps and horrible handwriting were the primary issue. Thankfully Null had given him notes on the subject, a war that had happened back before Malefor's time. The dark green dragon may have lacked an element, but he remembered just about everything.

"I'm writing an essay," The young dragon answered simply.

"Mh-hm…" His father looked at the notes, narrowing his eyes. "Why are you using notes taken by another?"

"History's not my favorite subject…" Apex looked down at the paper again. He perked up. "But Null's helping me!"

A single talon was placed on the notes, easily piercing through the paper and spearing all of them. "I thought I told you not to speak to that winged lizard."

"B-but Dad-," Apex protested.

"No _buts_ , son," The larger dragon growled, ripping the notes apart. "I will not have a child of mine associating with a creature such as that. It is an unclean and unnatural abomination, born of a harlot and a demon."

"But-,"

"Go outside. Now. I need to have a discussion with your mother." His father lifted his head high, glaring at Apex.

"Y-yes sir." Apex quickly grabbed his paper and scrambled outside, trying to get as far away as he could before his father's voice rang out in a shout. It was only after he had gotten far away from the house that he realized that he didn't have a quill or ink pot.

There was no way Apex was going to go back to brave his father's wrath. The towering wind dragon had no love for Null, or Null's father, or even heroes like Cynder. Anyone who wasn't a 'normal, decently minded dragon' was a demon, abomination, or worse in old Dolus's eyes.

And the number of folks who fit in that classification was abysmally small.

"What's got you so upset?"

Apex jumped in surprise. Null may not have been fast or strong, but he knew full well how to be stealthy when he wanted to. Shaking his head, Apex turned his blue eyes to look at the dark green dragon. "Dad's kicked me out…"

"Again? What about this time?" Null raised an eyebrow.

"Your notes…" Apex trailed off.

"Oh. Okay." Null stretched his legs. "Well, come on."

"What? Why?" Apex asked in confusion.

"You can't complete your paper sitting out here, especially without any notes. We're going to my place." Null grinned, then walked off.

Apex scurried after Null, settling into a comfortable walk once he got his balance. It took hardly a minute for both of them to reach Null's home.

"Mom! I'm home!" Null announced, pushing the door open.

"One moment!" Jaya called back. There was a clatter of cutlery, then the sapphire dragoness emerged from another room. She looked at Null with a loving expression, then her eyes widened in surprise when she saw Apex. "Oh! Hello Apex, how are you doing?"

"Hello Missus Jaya." Apex bowed his head in respect.

"Please, Apex. Just call me Jaya." The dragoness smiled kindly. "What brings you here today?"

"Dad threw me out…" Apex muttered, eyes downcast. "He doesn't want me to be friends with Null." The wind dragon blinked back tears. "I don't understand why! Null's my best friend, he's always been there for me! If he wasn't I would've failed classes a hundred times! Why does my dad hate him?"

"It's okay, little one. Your father doesn't know Null like you do." Jaya wrapped Apex in her wings, holding him close to her warmth. "You can let out your tears and frustration. You're safe here."

Apex could feel the tears rolling down his snout. "M-Miss-,"

"Shh, it's okay. We'll be here for you any time you need," Jaya soothed. "Even if your father does not accept you, I will."

 **xXx**

Apex blinked the tears from his eyes, stumbling momentarily and leaning heavily on Null. The dark green dragon shot him a concerned glance, but a shake of his head told Null that he was fine. The duo continued to Jaya's body. Apex broke away from his smaller companion, allowing Null to approach his mother's body. As much as he personally ached to go and try to feel some warmth from the sapphire dragoness, he knew it was too late, and that right now Null needed to have some time alone.

The wind dragon sat down wearily, thinking. Where had that memory come from? Yes, he had been thinking about how Jaya had helped him, but he hadn't expected anything so _vivid_. Least of all a full-blown flashback.

Apex shakily stood and walked over to Null, standing silently next to his friend. The dark green dragon was crying once more, tears flowing freely down his face. Both young dragons leaned against the other, using each other for support.

The duo were standing there, both staring at Jaya's body and crying openly. Apex almost didn't notice when a much larger dragon came up next to them. A sideways glance told Apex that the newcomer was Ferrus, the iron-scaled dragon bowing his head in respect.

"She was a good dragon," Ferrus said, breaking the silence. "She did not deserve the misfortune fate handed her, but she dealt with it well anyways. Jaya will be missed." Ferrus slowly walked forwards, placing a paw on Jaya's flank. "Be with the ancestors now, Jaya."

Starting at the edges of her wings, Jaya's body slowly began to change into shimmering blue light. Tiny particles began to drift away on the wind, floating away like dandelion seeds. In a matter of moments, Jaya's body was gone, even the blood, leaving nothing but a patch of blue flowers where she once was.

A fresh wave of sobs swept over Null, and the smaller dragon leaned even heavier against Apex. Ferrus slowly walked over to the two young dragons, his head bowed. "I need you two to be before the village council later. I'm so sorry about Jaya, but I desperately need the two of you to be strong. Can you do that for me?"

Apex looked up at Ferrus. How dare he? How dare he ask something like this so soon after such a large tragedy? Did he even care?

But of course Ferrus cared. He didn't want to cause either of them hurt, but at the same time he had to do what was best for the village. Ferrus wouldn't ask either of them to do this if it wasn't necessary.

"Okay." Apex nodded, taking a deep breath. "I'll be there."

"Null?" Ferrus turned his head to look at the dark green dragon. "I understand if you need time to recover-,"

"I'll be there," Null answered immediately, his voice emotionless and drained.

"Thank you both." Ferrus bowed his head once more. "I'll leave you two in peace."

* * *

"Alright, everyone. Calm down." Ferrus had to shout to be heard over the clamor that the other members of the council were making. "Calm down!"

"What are we supposed to do when we're being attacked by giant elementals?" A fire dragoness screeched, clearly hyperventilating.

"If Malefor has returned we're all doomed!" An electric dragon shouted.

"What should we do?" The speaker, an ice dragon, was almost hyperventilating.

"Quiet!" Ferrus roared over the commotion, causing the room to drop into silence. The elder took a deep breath to calm his nerves before he spoke once more. "Now then, you all know about why I've called you here. There is a major issue in the form of the elemental."

"Does this mean Malefor has returned?" The electric dragon from before demanded.

"I did not say anything about Malefor, Arc," Ferrus said sternly. "However, that does not mean that there is nothing grander going on. The elemental was clearly powered by a dark gem, and it had the accursed crystals growing all over it. You all know that the energy flowing through these dark gems is convexity, and that convexity crystals only appear when the world is in a time of crisis, and never in only one place.

"Logically following, this means that there are more rogue elementals out there, powered by the same dark gems as the one that attacked our village. And if there are more, then that means that we have an obligation to let the rest of the world know before the problem grows out of hand." Ferrus gestured for Null and Apex to come forwards. "Null, Apex, please come forth."

Null looked at Apex anxiously. The wind dragon was impassive, his face blank of emotion. Steeling himself, Null walked forwards to stand next to Ferrus, Apex doing likewise.

"These two young dragons both had a good look of the elemental, and by dint of their efforts managed to destroy it. I propose that we send them to Warfang to warn the dragon council of the threat."

As soon as Ferrus finished the room broke into uproar again. All of the members of the village's council were clamoring for their voice to be heard, but each was lost in the noise. All but one, that was.

The one dragon who was silent stepped forwards, and suddenly the room went silent. Not because the others stopped talking, but because the air suddenly refused to transmit sound. The wind dragon sat there for a few moments as he waited for the others to realize that their voices couldn't be heard. Once the others settled down, the dragon spoke.

"Ferrus… surely you do not truly intend to send these children to Warfang." It was a statement, not a question. "There truly is no need to, seeing as the elemental did no damage to the village. It was not even an issue. The grublins, on the other hand, were, and they always have been and always will be."

"Dolus, the elemental killed Jaya," Ferrus said softly.

"And? She deserved it for spawning such an abomination and for laying with a demon." Dolus wrinkled his nose in disgust. "But fine. You've made your point. Why send both of them? The lizard I understand, but why send my son? If these elementals are dangerous, then surely we want the dragon to have slain one to defend our village."

"I didn't kill the elemental. Null did." Apex's voice was flat, emotionless. Null wasn't unused to hearing him like this, the wind dragon controlled his emotions with surprising skill for one his age and demeanor. "And Jaya died to protect this village. To protect _you_. You ungrateful monster."

Dolus reeled, blinking in surprise at his son's outburst. "Apex, you do not address your superiors like-,"

"Shut up and listen for once, _dad_ ," Apex snarled, his tone scathing. "Null is the real hero here, not me. He killed the elemental on his own, all I did was keep the grublins away. And that was after it had killed Jaya. He was emotionally devastated and _still_ went in to kill the elemental."

"Apex, stop," Dolus commanded.

"No. I will not stop. If Null is going, I'm going with him. I'm not going to leave my only friend to go on a potentially dangerous mission on his own." Apex paused to take a breath, glaring at his father. "So I don't care what you think of Null, or Jaya, or anyone. I'm going on this mission, and you cannot stop me."

Dolus was stunned for a few moments, almost unable to form words. After mindlessly opening and closing his mouth for a second, he finally set his face into a snarl. "You're no son of mine."

Apex seemed to consider this for a moment. "You're right. You haven't earned the right to call yourself my father."

With that, Apex stalked out of the council chamber.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Hello all! I'm sure you noticed that there was no author's note on the previous chapter. That was because I felt as though it would ruin the mood and suspense of the chapter. If something like that happens again, you can expect to not see an authors note there as well. I will, however, go over the previous chapter in the next chapter's author's note.**

 **So, last chapter was a bit of a big one. In retrospect I may have gone too fast on the pacing, but I'll be working to slow down on the pacing in the future.**

 **In regards to this chapter, you get to see the world through Apex's eyes. You can expect this to happen fairly frequently.**

 **As always, please leave a review to let me know what you think!**

 **Now read on!**


	4. Leaving Home

When Null had woken up the previous morning, the last thing he had expected to happen was to be nominated for a trip to Warfang. For that matter, he hadn't expected an elemental to attack the town, or for Apex to freak out after touching the giant crystal, or…

Or for his mother to die.

And to be honest, Null didn't even know if he could make himself go on.

Null lay on his bed, in truth nothing more than an oversized cushion. He felt as though his limbs were heavier than he was, and his eyelids refused to stay open. He couldn't even muster enough energy to think, to consider the implications of an elemental showing up in the village. It just wasn't worth the effort.

The dark green dragon curled his tail around, looking listlessly at the tailblade. It was made of bone, but that didn't make it any less dangerous. The natural weapon was shaped like a curved dagger, jutting a short distance out of the end of his tail before widening into a wickedly sharp blade. Null knew from experience how sharp it could be, he had cut himself with it, and many other things as well.

It would be so, so easy to just bring the blade closer…

"Null? You up?"

No. No, thinking like this wouldn't bring her back. It wouldn't fix anything. Most importantly, it wouldn't help Apex. Apex still needed him. Apex would be so lost without him. Dumb, goofy, lovable Apex, his only friend.

With this thought fresh on his mind, Null pushed himself to his feet. "Yes."

"Okay, just making sure. Ferrus wants us to meet at the school building, since it's the only one still intact. Make sure to grab anything you wanna bring." Apex's voice was coming from just outside the door. "Um. We might not be coming back, Ferrus said."

"What do you mean?" Null furrowed his brow, looking at the few possessions he had. Honestly, none of them were that important to him. Just trinkets and toys that had held his attention for short periods of time. There were a few books, but he had mostly just borrowed books from the school, and the few he had were simple and easy to obtain copies of.

"I dunno, he just said to make sure we had everything we would want because we may not return." Apex paused for a moment. "Hopefully."

"Hopefully?" Null shook his head, deciding that nothing here was worth taking. Many of the things he would've wanted had been destroyed by the fire, it seemed.

"Yeah, um. I didn't understand. I probably wasn't supposed to hear the 'not coming back' part. He sorta muttered it." Apex sounded pensive, and Null didn't blame him.

Sighing, Null shook his head and pushed the door open. It had been miraculous that his own room had mostly escaped the flames, but the rest of the house hadn't been so fortunate. The guest room was the only other room besides his own that still had four walls and a roof, and that was where Apex had spent the night.

Null glanced at the wind dragon as he made his way out of his room. "Well, we'd better get going. There's nothing much here worth worrying about."

"Alright then." Apex nodded.

There was something off about Apex, but Null couldn't place it. The white dragon was certainly more tired than usual, but that could easily be explained as a lack of sleep. Anyone would find themselves unable to sleep after what had transpired yesterday, either from fear, excitement, anticipation, grief, or anger. But there was something else that was different, something that screamed at Null to pay attention.

To be honest, Apex was kind of terrifying.

Null shook his head. That was just his tired mind screwing with him, Apex wasn't scary. Not to him. Apex was always there for him with a joke or a supporting flank.

"Let's get going," Null said, starting off towards the school building.

Apex fell in behind Null as the two made their way to the school. Now that it was the next day, it was clear that the damage to the village had been rather extensive. There were no buildings that had escaped the fire entirely, and the only one that was entirely standing was the school. Null wasn't sure whether to be disappointed or not. On one paw, there were more than enough adult dragons in the village to have defended it entirely from the grublins. On the other paw, the only ones who were selfless and brave enough had already gone out to fight. The rest had barricaded themselves into the school. It hadn't just seemed like there were only a few defending against the grublins, it was just the simple fact that there were only a few.

It didn't really matter at this point. The past was gone, and there was nothing that could change it. Null knew that most of the inhabitants of the village were selfish; he had seen it often enough. Amp and Althus coming out to defend the village was a surprise in and of itself.

Null quickly spotted Ferrus at the school building and made his way towards the iron-scaled earth dragon.

Ferrus. Reliable old Ferrus. The earth dragon had been like a surrogate father in the absence of his actual father. Ferrus originally treated him as an oddity, but had eventually grown to know him as a person.

"There you two are," Ferrus greeted.

"What's the plan?" Null asked.

"I've gathered some supplies that should help you on your trip, but there's not enough left in the village to supply you two and the rest of us," Ferrus explained, picking up two harnesses. Both of the harnesses had multiple pouches on them, with two large side pouches that bulged with the contents. "These should last you a few days as far as food goes, but after that you will need to hunt for food. There's rope, red spirit gems, green spirit gems, and a map and compass in each of your bags."

Null took his harness, opening one of the side pouches to see everything that Ferrus had listed. He glanced up at the earth dragon, one brow raised. "Why do we need all this stuff? Isn't it just a few day's flight to get to Warfang?"

"Flying, yes, but flying isn't an option." Ferrus took the map out of the second harness's side pouch, unrolling it on the ground. "We are situated here…" The earth dragon placed a talon on a southern part of the map. "While Warfang is here." Ferrus traced a trail northwards, eventually ending on the marker for the city. "And in between lies the Ancient Grove."

"Ah. That would be why." Null frowned.

"Why?" Apex asked, looking between the other two with a lost expression. "What's wrong with the Ancient Grove?"

"Not just the Grove, but everything around it." Null tapped on the grove's marker on the map. "It's not really a grove as much as it is a swamp. A particularly nasty swamp, at that. The Grove and surrounding marshlands have poisonous waters, meaning that just touching them can cause irreparable harm or death. But the waters aren't as dangerous to a dragon as the fumes are. Flying over the grove is a suicide quest."

"But what if I-," Apex began.

"The poisons would break your barrier," Null interrupted, predicting Apex. "They have a tendency to disrupt elements on contact, the vapors more so than the waters."

"Okay, then what about going around?" Apex traced a trail around the end of the Silver River, a path that spent much of its time over the ocean. "The fumes wouldn't be able to get us if we went that way."

"Yes, but that's Skavenger territory," Ferrus rumbled. "They've always hung around the Ancient Grove, but since the Reassembly the pirates have been clinging ever closer to land. Very dangerous creatures have stirred from the ocean's depths."

"And going the other way around?" Apex asked.

"Would take longer than going through the marshes on foot," Ferrus answered. "Quite a lot longer too, it will be at least two months before we get to Warfang, but that's why I'm sending you two ahead."

"Wait, we?" Null raised a brow at this. "What we?"

"This place is ruined." Ferrus sighed, looking around the village. "It was far enough away from Warfang that we escaped the worst of the war with Malefor, but even then we had trouble warding off outlying patrols of grublins. Now, with the potential threat of elementals attacking, we can't risk it. There's no way that we could defend against another elemental attack. Our only hope is to evacuate."

"And the most logical place to evacuate to is Warfang," Null finished, nodding. "Seeing as it was built to survive catastrophic events on the scale of the war, not to mention the fact that the heroes of legend live there."

"That's correct." Ferrus nodded in confirmation. "The only things we'll be taking with us are essentials, as well as the few personal effects that we can carry. If things go as planned, we won't return here ever again." The old earth dragon looked around the village again, letting out a deep sigh. "I'll miss this place, but I've left home before. The real shame lies in leaving the spirit gem cave behind. There aren't many clusters that are as large as the ones in there." Ferrus shook his head and rolled up the map, replacing it in the pouch. "Nonetheless, you two had best get on the road."

Apex took his harness and donned it, stretching his wings. "I guess we'll see you at Warfang, then."

Null nodded, stretching his own wings. "'Bye Ferrus."

"Best of luck you two." Ferrus bowed his head. "And may the Ancestors protect you."

"May the Ancestors protect us all." Null bowed his head as well. After a moment, he rose, looking at Apex. "Let's get going."

The two younger dragons set off. Null glanced back one more time at the village. He wasn't too surprised to find that he didn't particularly miss it. Too many bad memories from bullies.

Null blinked in surprise, realizing with a start that tears were pricking at the corners of his eyes. He quickly blinked away the tears. Maybe things hadn't been too bad here. He had spent his entire life in this village, after all. This was where he was born, where he grew up, and where…

Where Jaya had died.

Null shook his head and continued on, trying not to think about it. Dwelling on the past would get him nowhere. It would just feed into itself until he was depressed and unmotivated. His time was far better spent making sure that something like this could never happen again.

Steeling his resolve, Null turned his gaze forward. That was why he was going to Warfang. He and Apex were going to make sure that the world knew about the threat of these elementals. They were going to warn the Guardians and the Council.

Inevitably, Null's thoughts turned to the elemental. How had it come about? Was it really created by the Dark Master? The Deep Golems and the Destroyer were the most prominent examples of elementals Malefor had commanded during the war, but they weren't the only ones. Goliaths like the one that had attacked the village, aquatic naiads, and the sky-dwelling Nimbus were all elementals born of Malefor's dark influence. Even the rock trolls, as common as they were, had been created by Malefor's dark crystals.

Which brought Null's thoughts to the dark crystals. What were they? Why did they drain elemental energy from the nearby environment, but also power and control elementals? Perhaps the energy they drained powered the elemental? But the goliath hadn't even been near a dragon until attacked the village.

Maybe the gems didn't just draw energy from dragons? It could very well be that the dark crystals drew energy from the nearby environment as well. That was a way that it could animate an elemental, but the raw energy of the nearby area wouldn't nearly be enough. Ambient magic was powerful, sure, but it was nothing compared to the energy a dragon could create and harness. Even spirit gems-

No, wait. Spirit gems could power an elemental. He had seen it once, when Ferrus had demonstrated the process of golemancey to the class. A tiny fragment of a blue spirit gem, placed within a body made of clay, could give it animation. The only problem with golemancey, and why it wasn't a widespread magic, was that the golems were stupid. They did only what they were told to, and nothing more. True golems and Deep Golems were nothing alike, with the former being constructs and the latter being almost sapient creatures, according to the stories.

Then was there some link between the dark crystals and spirit gems? Something that connected the two?

Null faltered, a gust of wind knocking him off balance. He glanced around at his surroundings quickly. When had they taken off? Why were they flying?

Oh right. Apex had mentioned that they would get to the Grove faster if they flew, especially since the wind dragon could manipulate the air currents to further accelerate them. Odd that he couldn't remember taking off, but that happened sometimes when he was thinking. Null glanced over to Apex. The white dragon looked incredibly fatigued, but still flew strong.

"Alright, what aren't you saying, Apex?" Null asked over the sound of wind whipping past his ear frills.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Apex answered flatly. Emotionlessly.

Null sighed. Apex may have learned how to hide his emotions to escape punishment from his father, but Null had learned how to read people to prevent the bullies from getting him. Plus, Apex may have been able to hide which emotion he was feeling, but he couldn't hide when he was trying to conceal them.

"You know that doesn't work on me," Null replied equally flatly. "What's eating at you?"

Apex was silent for a few moments before finally speaking. "I dragged you along on this."

"Excuse me, but last I checked I was the one leading this expedition," Null taunted, trying to get Apex back to normal. If he could get the wind dragon to react, hopefully he would break out of his slump.

"I mean I volunteered you, back at the council meeting yesterday," Apex specified, not taking the bait. "I shouldn't have done that, but I was so angry. Father just doesn't _listen_. He just judges, and hates, and acts."

"Apex, you know there was nothing for me back at the village, right?" Null asked quietly, almost quiet enough for the wind to drown it out.

Apex certainly heard it though, because he turned his head to look at Null. "What?"

"Let's face it, everyone else there hates me. You, Ferrus, and Mom were the only ones who even considered me a dragon, while the others called me a winged lizard, or a freak of nature." Null shrugged apathetically. "I got used to it, but that doesn't mean it was any more welcoming. Then, when Mom-," Null stopped, choking on his words for a moment. "Anyways, the only ones left were you and Ferrus, and Ferrus is leading the village to Warfang anyways. The only things I'll miss is the house I grew up in and the crystal cave."

"So you were going anyways…" Apex trailed off, looking down at the landscape below.

"More or less." Null shrugged again. He glanced at Apex again. "But something else is wrong. Why are you so tired?"

Apex chuckled. "You're way too observant, Null."

"Yeah, tell me about it." Null grinned. "But you didn't answer my question."

Apex sighed. "I don't really know. I just feel… exhausted. Like my body's burning through my energy faster than I can take it in. I couldn't sleep last night either, I was just so angry at my father."

"You wanna take a rest?" Null asked concernedly.

"I'm fine," Apex asserted, continuing on. Not even a few seconds later, the wind dragon faltered, and the tailwind faded.

"Alright, we're descending. We're nearly at the Grove anyways." Null changed his angle, flying down to the ground. After a moment, Apex followed behind.

While Null landed lightly, Apex hit the ground with a quite audible _thud_. Null turned around to see the wind dragon bracing himself on all four legs, his knees locked. It looked like Apex was panting heavily, and sounded like it too.

"We can just stop here for the rest of the day, if you want," Null suggested.

"I just… need a second," Apex replied. He staggered over to a large boulder and collapsed in the shade.

Null walked over and lay down in the shadow of the boulder, looking his friend in the eye. There was something wrong, something that Apex wasn't saying. In fact, it was possible that it was something that Apex didn't even know about. There had been depressingly few books on psychology in the village, mostly because the only dragons that ever practiced it were those with the mind element. Still, Null knew enough about how the draconic mind worked to tell that there was something going on under the surface, something that Apex might not consciously be aware of.

"Hey, Apex," Null said suddenly, a grin on his face. "You remember that time when Althus got stuck in a tree?"

"Yeah, that was funny." Apex chuckled. "He was freaking out so bad because his tail spade got stuck in the tree trunk, so he caught the tree on fire."

"Ferrus was so mad!" Null burst out into laughter.

"Althus wasn't even allowed outside for like a week!" Apex laughed as well, shaking off some of his weariness. "Amp was so ticked about that; he refused to talk the entire time."

Both of the dragons shared a much-needed laugh before settling into a comfortable silence. It didn't take Apex long to try and push himself to his feet.

"What do you think you're doing?" Null asked.

"Continuing on. You said Ancient Grove wasn't that far from here," Apex replied, starting off. He already seemed to be feeling better.

Perhaps his exhaustion was a magical deficiency? That would explain a lot. A dragon regenerated their elemental energy fairly slowly, and using a fury would definitely drain a lot of one's energy. Enough that the relatively mild exertion of creating a tailwind was enough to drive Apex to exhaustion. Apex hadn't gotten any green spirit gems since then either, which meant that he only had his natural reserves.

Null shivered from a sudden chill, then followed the wind dragon. Apex was moving at a surprisingly fast pace, even compared to usual, meaning that Null had to almost run to keep up.

It was well worth the effort, though, when the two came out of the valley they had landed in. Almost like an impenetrable wall, trees spread out from horizon to horizon on either side.

They had made it to the Ancient Grove.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Not a whole lot in this chapter, apart from the fact that our heroes have made it to the first obstacle in their journey.**

 **As always, please leave a review to let me know what you think!**

 **Now read on!**


	5. Frozen Over

The Ancient Grove, a place where the waters were a virulent poison, and the plants were even worse.

Indeed, the plantlife that grew surprisingly well in the Ancient Grove had a bizarre sentience. Frogweeds existed elsewhere, but they were animals that had adapted to look like plants, just like bulb spiders. The only truly sentient plants existed on the banks of the Silver River. Whereas the ones further upstream tended to keep to themselves, the ones in the Grove were very, very violent.

Still, it was entirely possible for a dragon to live within the Grove without fear. Poison dragons had the easiest time, seeing as they had an immunity to the toxins in the water and plantlife. That wasn't to say that other kinds of dragons couldn't, as anyone with the requisite knowledge could avoid the threats inherent to the Grove.

So it was fortunate, then, that Null had done his research.

Not that he had ever expected to _go_ to the Ancient Grove; nobody ever wanted to go to such a dangerous place. But he had wondered, one day, what kinds of dangerous locations existed in the Dragon Realms. Curiosity had led him to read about the Munitions Forge under Mount Boyzitbig, the electrically charged wastes of Concurrent Skies, and most importantly the toxic Grove in front of him.

"I'm… more than a little worried," Apex muttered, staring at the towering trees in front of them. "How are we going to breathe, exactly? The fumes should be even worse down under the trees, right?"

"The waters themselves don't give off the fumes, the trees do." Null answered. He stared at the tree line a little, then padded into the oppressive bog. "We'll be fine if we just don't fall into the poisonous water."

Apex hesitated for a moment longer, then followed Null.

"So what's the plan?" The wind dragon asked, glancing around at the nearby plants. All sorts of luminous purple plants were present, and more than one turned to follow the duo.

Null carefully stepped around a mushroom. "Well, we'll _try_ to get out of the Grove by nightfall, but honestly I doubt we will. It stretches just a bit too far for us to get all the way through in one day, but at the same time it provides shelter from any negative weather. Honestly, nighttime in the Grove isn't too bad, all we'll have to worry about are Grove Beasts."

"And what are those, exactly…?" Apex glanced at the glowing purple mushroom, watching as it changed colors on one side. He shuddered and continued.

"A creature related to grublins, but less intelligent. If that's possible." Null chuckled. "They have exoskeletons, and usually some kind of fungus or moss growing on them. They're a lot bigger than grublins, though, and stronger too. They don't have the same burrowing talent, though."

"That always confused me. How do the grublins even do that?"

"They have an innate connection to earth magic." Null glanced back, noting the surprised look on Apex's face. "What, you thought that only dragons could connect to the elements?"

"Well…" Apex hesitated, thinking. "I don't know. I mean, cheetahs and moles don't have elemental magic, and neither do other species like the apes and the wolves."

"Dragons are the only sophisticated species with a connection to the elements." Null nodded. "But grublins, with their primitive culture, have the ability to merge with the earth. It's just a shame they use it for pointless raids." Null shook his head. "There are other creatures with elemental affinities, and the Grove Beasts are among them. They throw poison magic."

"Pleasant," Apex noted.

"Anyways, otherwise we just have to worry about grove mites and grove worms. The mites won't be much of a problem if we avoid their nests, and the worms only live in the toxic waters," Null continued. "So we just steer clear of those."

"Right, simple," Apex muttered, looking around. There were even more luminous plants all over the place. Mosses, mushrooms, lichens, and more than a few flowers decorated the Grove.

Null used the silence to think more on the way things were going. Apex was constantly tired, an elemental had attacked the village, and there was something deep, deep in the gem cave.

Back to that. What could that giant purple crystal have been? Null hadn't even been able to see the edges, which meant that it was large enough to meld into the horizon. But what had it been, exactly? Was it truly a spirit gem, as Apex had suggested? And if so, what kind of spirit gem? Null had only ever heard of four varieties: green, red, blue, and dark. What, then, were purple spirit gems?

For that matter, how did spirit gems work? They were, supposedly, gifts from the Ancestors. Did that mean the Ancestors as they were now, as spirits that watched over all? Or were the Ancestors once a technologically and magically advanced people, as some theorists suggested? That would, of course, mean that the Ancestors had engineered the spirit gems, which made sense. Spirit gems were far too convenient to dragonkind to be natural, especially considering how fast they grew back.

Still, that didn't explain their odd properties. As far as Null knew, there was nothing that could heal a dragon as quickly as red spirit gems. Likewise, blue spirit gems were the only things that could enhance a dragon's elemental power besides training. Funnily enough, green spirit gems could be replicated, but only by directly transferring elemental energy from one source to another, and both had to have the same element. The fact that green gems transferred energy to any element meant that they defied all logic.

Dark gems, on the other hand, were on another level of oddity entirely. They acted as driving forces for creatures like elementals, but at the same time they acted as a bottomless void as far as external energy goes. They didn't grow naturally, most of the time, but they occasionally showed up without reason. The strangest part, though, was that they _only_ appeared in times when the world was under threat. The earliest recorded dark gems were referenced in a book that was even older than the story of Malefor, meaning that the purple dragon had nothing to do with their creation.

Null hesitated, something felt off about this area. There were no insects chirping, far fewer luminous plants, and there was a slight chill in the air. Ordinarily that wouldn't be a problem, but it was the middle of summer in a boggy location. The combination of heat and humidity should have made it stifling and stuffy, but instead it was dry and cold.

The sense that something was wrong was reinforced when Null placed a paw down and slipped.

He probably should have been paying more attention, but he had stepped onto a faintly luminous purple patch of ground. While many things in the Grove were glowing and purple, none of them took up this much ground space. Nothing but the water, anyways.

And while Null had just placed his paw directly on a pool of toxic water, he wasn't going down.

Rather, he was skidding across the surface.

"Woah!" Null cried out, his claws scrabbling on the ice. He knew what it was, of course, but never had he encountered a patch large enough to take up more space than his paw. With all four legs locked, he slowly slid until he hit the other side of the pool.

"Huh." Apex prodded the ice. "So it wasn't just me. It actually is really cold here."

"It shouldn't be." Null shakily walked off of the ice, digging his claws into the ground to make sure he didn't slip again. "It's summer." Null stared at the ice and shuddered. He couldn't imagine how he hadn't felt the cold earlier, and even still it wasn't that much of a problem to him. He supposed he should be glad that it was cold enough for the toxic waters to freeze, otherwise he'd be nothing more than a pile of bones at the bottom of a pool right now. "I didn't even think it _got_ cold enough in the Grove for the waters to freeze."

"Well." Apex stepped down onto the ice, carefully using his wind powers to push himself across. "Apparently it does."

"Yeah…" Null looked around, now noticing things he had missed before. Flowers that were open in the fringes of the Grove were closed against the cold. Frost gathered on the tree trunks, killing the moss that grew on them. Here and there Null caught glimpses of… was that snow? "This… this isn't normal."

Apex stepped off of the ice and shivered. "I don't like it."

"Yeah… me neither." Null shook his head. "Let's keep going."

As the duo proceeded through the Grove, Null noticed more oddities. Piles of snow in places that weren't even reachable from the sky. Larger and larger bodies of toxic water frozen solid. Not even the buzz of a grove mite filled the air. It was downright eerie.

It was when they came across the treant that Null knew there was a problem.

A creature that, in other circumstances, would have crushed the two dragons like insects; the treant was no threat now. Despite its massive size, literal tree-trunk limbs, and doubtless toxic abilities, there was nothing that the creature could do now. Not while it was frozen solid.

"This is a problem," Null stated, staring at the treant. While it would have probably tried to kill the two of them, nothing deserved to die like that. To be helplessly trapped with no chance of escape, no chance to fight back. "If whatever caused this could freeze _that_ , it's definitely more than capable of killing us."

"What could cause this?" Apex asked, more curious than worried.

"An elemental, probably," Null replied, staring at the treant still.

"Like the one that attacked the village?" Apex was suddenly on edge.

"The one that attacked our village was a goliath." Null slowly walked towards the frozen treant, eyes on a patch of snow at its feet. "This was caused by something with ice element, so it certainly wasn't a goliath. It might have been a Yuki-Onna, but they usually just lurk in places already frozen. Maybe it was a group of Jotun, ice giants, but their specialty lies in random destruction. I really, _really_ hope it wasn't an Aquilo."

"What's an Aquilo, exactly?" Apex was now far more worried than curious.

"A powerful, powerful spirit of ice." Null paused. "You know Dante's Freezer?"

"Are you saying that an Aquilo caused that?!" Apex spread his wings as if to take off, it was clear that he was extremely uneasy.

Null didn't blame him. "No, but an Aquilo maintains it. That particular elemental is sleeping most of the time, and from stories it's actually rather calm. I doubt this is the doing of an Aquilo, but it still worries me. Ah-ha!"

"Ah-hah what?" Apex folded his wings once more, slowly padding up next to Null. He occasionally glanced at the treant, as if afraid that it would move to crush them.

"Treants usually grow near spirit gems, particularly green ones. They also very, very rarely move. As I suspected…" Null dug away at the snow, revealing a glimmer of green crystal. "There are crystals here. Something tells me you'll need them."

"Thanks Null." Apex smiled in gratitude, and Null noticed just how exhausted the wind dragon seemed. It hadn't been more than a few hours, and he hadn't used any of his elemental energy. How was he so tired again so quickly?

Nonetheless, Apex broke the crystals, absorbing the green shards. Almost immediately he straightened, energized once more. "Wow, I really needed that."

"I can tell." Null nodded. "Let's get going. With luck, we'll avoid whatever caused all this ice."

The young dragons set off again, this time with far more caution. Neither of them wanted to meet whatever had caused this freeze, especially when one of them was unnaturally tired and the other was, well, Null.

Unfortunately, wishes don't come true.

The signs of the creature's presence became even more common, if that were possible. Grove worms that were in pieces _and_ frozen were in just about every body of water. There was a particularly surprised looking grove beast standing next to a pool of water, one arm lying on the ground and its entire body turned into ice.

The scariest part were the trees. Trees with trunks that were yards across, sliced down in what seemed like a single blow. There weren't any marks to indicate chopping, leading Null to believe that this creature had some sort of weapon that could cut the trees down in a single stroke. That ruled out Yuki-Onna, as they used ice magic exclusively. It also ruled out the Jotun, because they had nothing that sharp. Seeing as Aquilos tended to a more sedentary life, that left only one potential option.

And as soon as the dragons came into a clearing, that option was confirmed.

It was beautiful, honestly. With intricate patterns composing its entire body, one could mistake this creature easily for decoration. The difference, however, was that decoration didn't have six arms that ended in the sharpest weapons known to the Dragon Realms.

The elemental looked, quite honestly, like a giant, floating snowflake. Its six limbs branched off from a central hexagon of crystalline ice, a purple crystal visible in the center. The glow coming from the crystal caused the entire snowflake to be a faint purple color, with the blades on the ends of its limbs remaining an ice blue color. Those same blades each took the form of a right angle triangle, with the right angle pointing away from the limbs. While at a distance it seemed to be levitating, Null saw the creature's legs, nearly invisible strands of flexible ice that stretched off of its main body. The head of the elemental was similarly nearly invisible, situated between the top two arm blades. Its eyes were closed at the moment, and the whole elemental seemed to be in a meditative state.

Then its eyes snapped open, and two orbs of ice stared at the dragons.

"It's not as bad as an Aquilo…" Null swallowed. "But it's pretty close."

"Er… what is it?" Apex backed up a step, his wings unfurling.

"A Boread."

Boreads, oh Boreads. The scourge of the Freezer. While Jotun were a more common threat, and Yuki-Onna could freeze you solid with a touch, Boreads were physically capable enough to wipe all of that away. They were truly the threat that one thought of when they heard the words 'Dante's Freezer'. Not the undead that lurked there without reason, or the killer climate, it was the creatures that could slice you into fifty pieces in less time than it took to blink.

And they were impossible to sneak up on.

The Boread simply stared at them, its six arms spread out in imitation of a snowflake. It didn't even blink. It didn't need to.

"I say we go back, and take a wiiiiide detour." Apex spoke up, stepping back another pace.

"Small problem with that suggestion…" Null glanced sideways at the wind dragon, before turning his gaze back on the Boread.

"And that is?"

"Boreads consider interrupting their meditation as a personal challenge." Null swallowed again, his mouth feeling dry. "And running as an affront."

"So… what, exactly, is our best option?" Apex glanced at Null.

"We're in luck, this one seems to be giving us the first attack." Null hesitantly took a step forwards.

Immediately, the Boread moved. Its body tilted on a horizontal axis, while its head and legs remained in the same position. All six of its blades were perfectly parallel to the ground, and so sharp that they were almost invisible when seen from the edge.

"Or… not." Null dropped into a combat stance. He knew that he didn't stand a chance against this thing. His only hope was to survive, and pray that the Boread somehow destroyed itself.

The Boread darted forwards, its spindly legs moving gracefully as its arms began to spin, rotating around its body like an icy buzzsaw. A beautiful, elegant, living, buzzsaw.

They were dead.

Null lunged forwards, under the buzzsaw attack, and swung his tail over his head. There was a satisfying _chink!_ as ice chipped off of the Boread's torso segment, and Null grinned. His victory was short-lived, however, because the Boread then kicked him in the head. Its legs may have been spindly, but they were strong.

Null gasped as stars danced across his vision, but was fortunate that the Boread had decided not to follow up. Instead, it seemed to have deemed Apex the bigger threat.

While it wasn't technically wrong, Null didn't quite know what to think about that.

Apex was truly a sight to behold in combat, able to dodge just about anything thrown at him. It was not unakin to the way that grass flowed in the breeze, moving out of the way of a blade or paw. It was a technique that required one to surrender themselves to the wind, and Apex knew full well how to do that.

The whirling blades of the Boread were mere inches away from Apex at all times, yet the wind dragon showed no fear as he battered the elemental with gusts of wind. While the gusts weren't enough to knock the creature off balance, they were certainly keeping it back.

Then the Boread changed tactics.

All six of the blades stopped moving, halting instantly. The Boread's body returned to the position that the dragons had found it in, and the limbs rotated so that it could chop at Apex.

Still the wind dragon managed to avoid every hit, this time using his wind attacks as blades to slice at the head of the Boread. Most of the attacks did nothing to the icy creature's head, until a particularly powerful blast sliced through the Boread's head, removing one of its eyes.

The Boread stumbled backwards, its remaining eye widening in surprise. The blue orb narrowed, and the graceful elemental took a step back. Releasing a low hiss from its head, the Boread fired a beam of ice elemental energy at Apex. As with every previous attack, the wind dragon dodged out of the way, causing the beam to hit a tree and create ice crystals.

Null shook his head and struggled to his feet, trying to shake off the dizziness that being hit in the head caused. Putting his stealth to good use, he slowly began to creep up behind the elemental. Even with the ground frozen solid, he knew how to keep unnoticed.

At least, until the Boread's head whirled around to glare at him with its remaining eye. While three of its arms continued to force Apex to dance around its strikes, the other three began to swing in the opposite direction. Null immediately had to scramble to avoid the attacks, but he had nowhere near as much agility as Apex. The Boread raised one bladed limb and sent it whistling through the air towards Null's back.

There was nothing he could do. He saw the strike, knew that it would incapacitate or, more likely, kill him, and knew that he needed to get out of the way, but he couldn't. He wasn't fast enough.

" **No!** "

Then, the world was still. Apex was suspended in the air, wind whipping around him, bowing to his will. Tendrils of elemental wind wrapped around the Boread's arm, causing it to come to a complete standstill.

Just as suddenly, the world launched back into motion. Apex released a pulse of wind energy, causing the Boread's arm to simply snap off and fall to the ground. The wind dragon snarled and slashed with blades of concentrated wind, once, twice, three times, removing limbs with each strike. Apex drew back for a killing blow-

And the Boread spun, impossibly fast, using its two remaining arms to slice Apex's stomach open.

Null stared in shock at the bloodied ice as Apex dropped to the ground. A fury. Apex had used a second fury in two days. That was so incredibly draining that dragons had simply dropped dead from the exertion. Usually a fury rendered the user beyond harm, or at least pushed any dangers away, but that level of exhaustion would mean that Apex was weakened beyond belief, maybe permanently.

The Boread turned its head back to glare at Null, raising its remaining blades. One of its arms was attached by a single crystal of ice, while the other was nearly unharmed. Null knew that if he didn't manage to stop this Boread, it would kill both him and Apex. This was his only shot.

Releasing a – rather unimpressive – roar, Null launched himself at the hexagonal torso section of the Boread. He whipped his tail forwards over his back, hoping to use his tailblade to his advantage. Something whirred past his horns, hitting the Boread in the torso and causing innumerable fractures to appear in the ice.

Time seemed to slow as the Boread fired a beam of ice energy at Null. The beam hit the dark green dragon in the chest, chilling him to the bone and making him want to curl up and save what little warmth he had left. He couldn't do that now, not while this Boread was trying to rip him apart. Null crashed into the Boread's torso, causing the outer layer of ice to shatter from the force.

All it took then was for Null to wrap his paw around the dark gem in its core, and the crystal's purple glow faded to nothing.

The clearing was silent. Null took a breath in and let go of the icy crystal that his claws had been embedded in. A shockwave of energy ran through Null's body, and the dark green dragon shuddered. The Boread's body stood over him, frozen like a sculpture.

Then, bit by bit, the icy creature began to fall apart. Each particle broke off and turned into snow, starting at the ends of its bladed limbs. Letting out a whisper of sound, the entire Boread collapsed into a flurry of snowflakes before melting into nothingness.

Null let out his breath. It was dead now. He looked around, spotting the projectile that had weakened the Boread's armor enough for him to break it. He walked over to look at it. The bladed projectile seemed to be made of bone, shaped like a cheetah's dagger. The bladed end was curved like a feline claw, while the end that would be a handle ended in an odd spiked structure.

With a start, Null realized that it was his tailblade.

Null bent his tail to look at the end. The blade was just missing. That was biologically impossible: no dragon had a detachable tail accessory. Some electric dragons had tail accessories that created electricity, mind dragons had tails that could connect directly to their target's mind, and some poison dragons had hollow spikes that injected poisons.

So why, then, was Null some sort of mutation?

He shook his head and turned to look at Apex.

His heart froze.

Apex was fortunate to have been hit by a Boread, because otherwise he would have bled out by now. A massive gash lay across his stomach, laying his innards open to see. If it weren't for the fact that a layer of clear ice had frozen the wound together, those innards would be spilled out over the ground. As it was, blood was seeping into the ice, and it was only a matter of time until that ice melted, now that the Boread was dead.

Null knew he had to act immediately to keep Apex from dying, but the spirit gems that had been packed weren't enough to heal something like this, and there were no red gems nearby.

Still, he had to try.

Null was aware that he couldn't just drag Apex, but there was no way he could carry the wind dragon using his jaws. That meant that he would have to somehow put Apex on his back.

Thinking quickly, Null lay down on Apex's chest. He knew that this would aggravate the wound, but he had no choice in this matter. Using his paws to wrap Apex's forelegs around him, he rolled over. Now that Apex was on his back, he was astonished to find that the wind dragon wasn't as heavy as he expected.

Now that Apex was on his back, he had to move fast. He didn't want to risk worsening the injury, but he had to get Apex to some red gems. He also needed to locate a shelter for the both of them.

Fortunately, he knew where he could find both.

Null began to quickly walk back the way they had come. Apex's weight wasn't much, but it was getting more and more difficult to carry by the minute. He had to hurry.

It was fortunate for Null that he knew exactly where to go, and that it wasn't all that far from the clearing where the Boread had been.

As soon as Null reached the frozen treant, he dug into the snow. There was another fact about treants that he knew full well, one that he hadn't bothered to tell Apex about because it wasn't important at the time. It certainly was important now.

Once as enough snow was removed from the ground around the treant, Null slipped through the revealed hole in the ground. The roots of a treant always, _always_ dug away a large portion of ground. They always made caves where they grew.

Null carefully set Apex down and slipped back out of the hole. Right outside of the small cave was an astonishingly large cluster of red spirit gems, their color and glow hidden by the snow. Null hesitated a moment, then picked up a nearby rock and smashed it against the base of the gems.

Lots of small fragments broke off and absorbed into Null's scales, making the end of his tail tingle strangely, but it was the large crystal that had fallen that his attention was on. Null quickly took off his harness and took the rope out of the pouch, wrapping it around the crystal.

This process would've been easier for anyone else, anyone who didn't have to worry about draining the crystals on touch, but Null was resourceful. He dragged the large crystal into the cave and dropped the rope. Null quickly pulled Apex over to the crystal and set the unconscious wind dragon against the red gem. Immediately the crystal's aura began to dim.

Finally satisfied that Apex would survive, Null took a deep breath and lay down next to his friend.

He was asleep less than a minute later.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **I swear, I had 'Cold as Ice' stuck in my head the whole time I was writing this chapter.**

 **Anyways, all of the different kinds of ice elemental are based off of mythological creatures. Admittedly I put my own spin on all of them, but what kind of writer would I be if I didn't take creative liberties.**

 **The Yuki-Onna is a Japanese blizzard spirit.**

 **Jotun are based off of the** **jötnar, ice giants, from Norse mythology**

 **Aquilo is the name of the Roman god of the north wind and winter.**

 **Boreads are based off of the children of the Greek god of the north wind.**

 **Please, review and let me know what you think.**

 **Now read on!**


	6. Fever Dreams

Running.

He was running.

Running to avoid his inevitable pain.

Running because he hoped he could get away from it.

Running despite the fact that he couldn't possibly escape.

The young dragon gasped in pain and faltered, stumbling and nearly losing his balance. He had to get out of there, he had to run. Before-

"Come back here, boy!"

"No, no, nononono!" He whimpered, instinctively cringing. This couldn't be happening! Please, Ancestors please, make this not be happening!

"Where do you think you're going?" A massive shape dropped down in front of him, its dark nature hidden behind pristine white scales. "Did I give you permission to go out of the house?"

"No, please dad! I just-," He stuttered.

"Just what, Apex?" Dolus snarled, his larger than life shape looming over him. "Just trying to ruin the family name? Trying to be as much of a freak as that worthless lizard you call a friend?"

"N-no! I-I didn't-,"

"Didn't what?" Dolus leaned down, his eyes boring holes into Apex's soul. "Didn't mean what you said? Because that would be awfully convenient, wouldn't it. Just renounce what you've said, and stop following that lizard around like a lost puppy." Dolus's head reared back, staring at Apex in disdain. "Maybe then you'll be worth something."

Dolus seemed to grow even more towering, his scales darkening in color until he was nothing more than a pair of luminous eyes glowing in the darkness. **"But then, you're just a fool."**

The shadow dragon slashed at Apex, sending him tumbling across the ground. The world around him melted into nothingness, leaving Apex standing in an empty void with the shadow dragon. "Wh-what do you want from me?!"

 **"I want you to see the truth."** The shadow dragon laughed, its luminous blue eyes cutting through the shadow of the empty void like a blade through butter. **"You follow Null around, worshipping the ground that worthless creature walks upon. You're an idiot."**

"Null is not worthless," Apex growled. "And I'm not an idiot."

 **"Really? Then let me illustrate why exactly you are an idiot. You think you're Null's friend? That he values you?"**

"Of course I do! We're like brothers!" Apex protested.

 **"You're like brothers now, but before?"** An image appeared, one of a much younger Apex searching for Null. The dark green dragon was hiding, and it wasn't for the sake of a game. **"He never wanted to be near you after that! What's made you think he's changed his mind?**

 **"Even now, you're the one putting in the work while he cowers in fear."** Images of the scene in the village appeared, of Null incapacitated while Apex took out the grublins. Images of Apex telling off Althus and Amp, while again Null lay there unable to act. **"You've given him everything you have, and he's given you nothing in return."**

"No!" Apex snarled, slashing at the images. "That isn't how that happened! I help Null because he's accepting and kind! He needs someone to lean on just as often as I do!"

The shadowy dragon was silent for a while. **"You speak truth."**

"Of course I do! Null is like a brother to me, and I'm not going to let anything turn me against him!" Apex dropped into a combat stance. "Now whatever you are, get out of my head!"

 **"Oh, if it were that simple."** The shadowy dragon vanished into wisps of darkness, its form becoming nothing.

"What?!" Apex blinked, backing up in surprise.

 **"It isn't as simple as that for me to leave. Believe me, my leaving is what both of us want, but it is simply impossible"** The formless voice came from everywhere and nowhere at once. **"You can at least count yourself lucky that I am no stronger than you."**

"What are you talking about?" Apex asked, looking around to try and locate the shadow creature. "If that's the case, how are you in my head?"

 **"Let me tell you something."** The voice seemed mildly irritated. **"There are many things in this world that we don't understand, my origin being one of them. In fact, I know nothing more than you do, and cannot grow stronger than you. We are equal, and we share power and knowledge."**

"We? Why do you keep saying we?" Apex asked. "What are you?!"

 **"Oh, Apex. I'd have thought you'd figured that out by now."** The shadows began to collect, creating a dragonlike caricature exactly the same height and size as Apex. It had luminous blue eyes, with two sleek horns poking out of the back of its skull. The wings seemed disproportionately large for its body size, until one took into account the flexible fins on the tail that easily classified this dragon as a wind dragon, despite its dark grey color.

The dark grey dragon tilted its head and grinned. **"Don't you recognize me, Apex?**

 **"I'm you."**

 **xXx**

Apex woke with a start, his entire body aching and his head hurting. The part that hurt the worst was his stomach: it felt as though something had sliced him open. He almost didn't want to move a muscle, but he knew he had to. He slowly looked down at himself, and his eyes widened in shock.

Right across his belly, starting right at the bottom of his ribs and ending at his right hip, was a massive wound. The entire wound was clean and straight, but it was deep enough for Apex to see his own innards. That sight alone made him almost vomit. At any moment Apex expected the injury to begin bleeding profusely, but to his surprise and immense relief, it did not.

It suddenly came to Apex's attention that there was something hard pressing against his back, and he turned his head to look. A colorless spirit gem, almost as large as he was, was laying there next to him.

Only now did Apex look at his surroundings, realizing that this was not anywhere he had ever seen before. It was a small cave, although it was easily large enough that it wasn't cramped. The only entrance was a single hole that was big enough for Apex to easily slip through. Roots poked through the ceiling all over the place, as well as poking through the floor and walls. It seemed like the roots were the only thing holding the cave roof together.

Apex turned his attention to the opening, and to his surprise there was snow there. The light reflecting off of the snow hurt his eyes to look at, forcing him to look away.

Where was Null? The dark green dragon couldn't be far, could he? Not if Apex was wounded this badly. Null wouldn't leave him to this fate.

Speaking of, what had done this to him? The last thing he remembered-

A scrabbling sound was audible outside the cave, and a cascade of snow tumbled in. It was immediately followed by a dark green shape. Apex perked up at the sight of Null, but immediately turned to fear and worry.

Null was covered in injuries, many of them dire. There was a hole in his chest, probably all the way through to the lungs. His left wing was sliced off at the joint, the membrane shredded to tatters. Null's tail was cut off entirely, leaving nothing but a bleeding stump. The smaller dragon was limping on three legs because his front right paw was gone, and his left foreleg was flayed open to the bone. The worst injury by far, however, was on his head. His left horn was missing entirely, along with a sizable chunk of scales and skull.

The dark green dragon dragged himself into the cave, wheezing with the effort. He turned his red gaze on Apex, his eyes wide. "A-Apex, y-you're awake."

"Null! What happened?!" Apex tried to rise, only to cringe back in pain. The injury on his stomach wasn't allowing him to move quickly, or much at all for that matter.

"Th-the Boread." Null coughed, causing blood to hit the cave floor. "It, it wasn't alone. Th-there were-," Null took a shuddering breath. "There were more."

"Boread…?" Apex muttered in confusion. His eyes widened as his memory returned.

 _The Boread raised one bladed limb and sent it whistling through the air towards Null's back._

 ** _"No!"_** _Apex roared, an unexplained energy surging through him._

 _Like with the goliath at the village, Apex unleashed an incredibly powerful blast of wind energy. Tendrils of elementally charged wind writhed through the air, wrapping around the elemental's arm and stopping it dead in its tracks. It wasn't going to kill Null, not on his watch._

 _With a wrenching movement, Apex ripped the arm off of the elemental's body and sent it soaring into the trees. It embedded itself in one tree, before turning into snow._

 _Apex raised his claws and channeled air into blades, enhancing his own natural weapons beyond anything nature could cause. He drew back and slashed at the Boread's arms, lopping off three of them in quick succession. Soon the ice elemental was left with only two limbs, and one of them was already nearly destroyed._

 _He raised his claws to slice the elemental in two-_

 _Then it whirled with a speed that should have been impossible, and its two remaining arms sliced through his stomach._

 _He was unconscious before he hit the ground._

"Oh, Ancestors, please no." Apex dragged himself over to Null, the memories of the horrible elemental running through his head. "Don't die on me Null, please don't die on me!"

"Y-you're-," Null coughed up more blood, his eyes closing. "You're the b-best friend… I could have hoped for…"

With that, the small dragon lay still.

"No, no, no, no! NO! **NO!** " Apex screamed shaking Null's body.

But it was for naught.

Apex bent his head down, tears streaming down his face. Null was dead. He was dead. Just like Jaya. The two he thought of as family were dead. Because of elementals. Because of creatures that didn't have emotion or thought.

The wind dragon sat there for hours, crying about his lost friend.

The last thing he heard before falling asleep once more was a familiar voice.

"Apex?"

 **xXx**

Pain. Everything was pain.

His stomach was sliced open, his bones felt as though they were under incredible tension, and his head was simultaneously on fire and too cold to think. He felt hot and cold, the sure signs of a fever, and the few times he opened his eyes everything was mashed into a blur of grey.

Apex cringed at the pain, pulling his legs closer to his body to curl up into a ball. It hurt to move, hurt to breathe. He wanted the pain to end.

 **"I can end the pain for you"**

Apex froze. No, please no. Not that thing. The thing from his nightmare.

 **"I am not your enemy, Apex. I am a part of you. And I can make the pain end."**

No, not like that. He wasn't willing to end himself to end the pain.

The voice of the dark entity sighed. **"I just told you that we are one and the same. If you die, I die. That isn't worthwhile for anyone, least of all Null."**

Null. Null was dead. Null had been killed by that Boread.

 **"For some reason I doubt that. There is no body nearby, we would sense it with our wind element."**

What? Apex opened his eyes and looked around, but all he could see was a blur. Apex pushed through the pain, focusing enough to sense the air currents in the cave. As the voice said, there was nothing else in there besides himself and a crystalline shape just smaller than he was. He opened his mouth and spoke, his voice hoarse from disuse. "How did you know that?"

 **"Because** ** _I am you_** **, Apex."** The voice was exasperated.

"Alright then, me." Apex whispered. "How are you supposed to be able to help me?"

 **"Because unlike you, I have a direct link to the elemental energy within us. I can use that to heal us."**

"What are you?" Apex asked quietly. "Where did you come from? And why, if you are a part of me, are you only talking now?"

 **"I…"** The voice trailed off into silence for a moment. **"I don't know. My knowledge is limited to what you know. All we know is that I manifested soon after you used that fury on the goliath."**

"…Alright. How do you plan to help me?" Apex murmured.

 **"By utilizing the elemental energy you have stored within you, and transforming it into life energy to restore your wound and empower your physical body."**

"Um… common, please?"

 **"I'll drain your magic to heal you."** The voice explained slowly. **"And then I'll make you stronger."**

"I…" Apex hesitated. Something felt off. Felt… wrong. "I don't know."

 **"Oh, to the hells with this. I'm doing it anyways."**

"What? But I thought you were part of me! I thought you had to do as I wanted!" Apex protested weakly.

 **"Just because I am part of you does not mean I obey you."** The voice retorted.

Apex could feel his consciousness fading rapidly. He laid his head on the floor, unable to keep his head up any longer.

 **"Just sleep. We'll be better when you wake."**

 **xXx**

"By the Ancestors, I didn't think this was possible…"

Apex felt something gently prodding him in the side. He shuddered as a paw traced down his stomach from his ribcage to his hip. As it reached the end of the scarred area, the paw lifted.

"Red gems didn't heal it, but apparently you can heal it on your own. That's… amazing."

Apex stirred and opened his eyes, unable to make out anything beyond the blurred mess that he always saw. When he spoke, it was weak and nearly silent. "What's going on?"

"Hey bud, how're you doing?" A shape moved past his vision, settling down directly in front of him.

Apex blinked a few times, clearing his vision somewhat. He could barely make out a dark green shape in front of him. "Null?"

"Who else would it be?" Null's voice lacked the harsh edge that he usually used when speaking to others. But then, he had rarely used that voice with Apex. The dark green dragon chuckled. "I thought you were going to die."

"Null…" Apex felt tears building up in his eyes. He turned, rolling over onto his front. Apex dug his claws into the ground and tried to stand, only to find that he couldn't. He was entirely drained.

"Woah! Don't get up yet. You still need to recover." Null rushed over to his side, pressing him back to the ground.

"I-I thought-," Apex choked on his words. "I thought you were d-dead, Null."

Null glanced sidelong at the wind dragon. "Whatever would give you that idea?"

"I saw- I saw you. You, you were dying. Something tore you up and-," Apex sobbed, closing his eyes as tears ran down his face. "I c-couldn't do a-anything."

"It's fine now, it was just a dream," Null soothed.

Apex lay there sobbing for a while, taking comfort in the presence of his best friend. They were safe. Both of them were safe.

After an indeterminate amount of time, the wind dragon wiped his tears from his eyes. "What… what happened?"

"How far do you remember?" Null asked.

"I remember… the Boread. When it sliced me open," Apex answered, wincing in remembered pain.

"Ah, right." Null looked at the ground. "Well, after that I managed to kill the elemental."

"How?" Apex asked, raising an eyeridge.

"What, you have no faith in me?" Null teased.

"I'm just wondering how you broke through its armor without getting sliced," Apex muttered.

"Eh, fair enough." Null nodded. He seemed to remember something. "Oh, right. Be right back."

Without saying a word more, the small dragon shot up and rocketed through the cave entrance. After a few moments, there was the sound of something scraping against the ground, and Null returned through the hole, backwards. He was dragging something much larger than he was, a fully grown deer.

"How in the world did you manage to take that down?!" Apex's jaw dropped in surprise.

The dark green dragon grinned, raising his tailblade. "Watch."

With that, Null flicked his tail down into the deer, causing his tailblade to whip through the air and bury its curved length into the dead creature's flesh.

"What in the world…" Apex's eyes widened.

"That's not even the strangest part," Null said. He placed the now-unadorned end of his tail near the blade's spiked end. Null quickly thrust the end of his tail onto the point of the spike, and there was an almost inaudible _click_. Just like that, Null raised his tail with the blade attached. "That's how I killed the Boread. I didn't even realize it was my tailblade until after I had drained its energy."

"Wow, so you're like some sort of… I dunno, stealth attack dragon." Apex laughed weakly at his joke. "So, uh, what happened then?"

"After the Boread collapsed, I went over to investigate your wound." Null hesitated. "If I'm honest… you should have died. It almost barely didn't slice your stomach apart, and you didn't bleed to death because the edges of the cut were frozen. I had to move you, so I managed to get you on my back and made my way back to the treant. Speaking of, it's thawed out by now, but it's dead. Anyways, this cave was right under the treant, so I dug away the snow and brought you down here. I couldn't bring you a red spirit gem, so I had to get creative there. I broke off that crystal," Null gestured at the colorless crystal that was laying next to Apex. "Using a rock, and dragged it down here with rope. My tailblade grew back a couple days after that, probably because of the red gem shards that went everywhere when I broke the crystal."

Apex could only sit in silent amazement that Null had managed to accomplish all this. Something about the conversation caught his attention. "How long was I out?"

"A week? Maybe a week and a half?" Null shrugged. "I wasn't counting. I had to bring you water and food. Occasionally you would wake up, but you were never lucid because of your fever. In fact, the first time I came back, you were halfway across the cave, crying your eyes out." Null's eyes met Apex's cerulean orbs. "I'm guessing that's when you had that bad dream."

"I… maybe?" Apex shook his head. He honestly couldn't remember anything that had happened, not clearly enough to say anything. "Where did you get drinkable water?"

"Something I remembered about the Ancient Grove is that the poisons don't react well to ice." Null chuckled. "Or rather, they completely dissipate. A huge section of the Grove is completely pure, none of the normally toxic creatures can live there. It's also got many clean ponds, which makes life far easier."

"Gotcha." Apex placed his paws on the ground, ready to push himself off the ground. "Are we ready to go?"

"Not quite yet. I have a question for you." Null walked over to the empty spirit gem and tapped a claw against it. "How did _this_ not work, but then you healed on your own?"

Apex mulled it over for a few moments. "I… really don't know. I don't remember anything from when I was sick, apart from the constant pain. It just… happened."

"That's odd," Null noted, shrugging. "Yeah, I guess we'll get on the move then. You seem to have recovered remarkably quickly, considering that you were mortally wounded."

Apex pushed himself to his feet with a grunt, finding that he could stand now. He was still shaky, but not to the point where standing was an immense effort of willpower. He glanced down at Null, who was staring up at him in surprise. Apex tilted his head. "What?"

"You've gotten taller," Null observed.

"I have?" Apex looked down at himself, finding that the ground was surprisingly far away. "That's weird."

"Hopefully it's just a growth spurt enhanced by exposure to the life energy that red gems use to heal dragons," Null muttered to himself.

"Erm, what?" Apex asked.

"Nothing. Just thinking aloud." Null shook his head, grinning up at Apex. "I'm just glad you're alright."

"Well, it's thanks to you that I am." Apex happily replied. He went to walk out of the cave, only to find his legs slipping out from under him.

Null was there in an instant, holding him up. The smaller dragon seemed to be having difficulty doing so, but that was probably because Apex had grown in the week he had been recovering. But… Null had been fending for himself during that time, no doubt getting stronger, and he hadn't grown at all. Weird.

Both of the young dragons exited the small cave, and Apex looked up at the dead treant that towered over it. He shuddered at the thought of that thing moving, then turned his gaze back to ground level. The wind dragon slowly hobbled over to the green crystals that grew around the treant's feet and broke some off, feeling rejuvenated and energized by the energy flowing into him.

"Ready?" Null asked, stretching his legs.

"As I'll ever be," Apex replied.

"Let's go."

The two friends set off once more through the thawing forest, both taking note of the changed atmosphere. No longer was it gloomy, as it was when overtaken by poison. Neither was it stark and sterile, like when it was frozen. No, the Ancient grove for once was like a normal forest.

Yet there was something nagging at the back of Apex's mind. Something that just… wasn't right. But it wasn't important. His fever had broken, and those strange images were gone. Hopefully forever.

 **"I'll be there again, when you need me."**

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Ooh, spooky. Seems like something's not right in Apex's head.**

 **Still, he's healed up now, and he's grown during the time he was out. Might not be normal, but who would complain about being better able to defend their friends?**

 **Who am I kidding, you all know this is going to end badly.**

 **Anyways, please review to let me know what you think!**

 **Now read on!**


	7. Ambushed

Deep within the Ancient Grove, there are many things that have never seen the light of day.

One such creature is the hydra, a horrific multiheaded creature with acidic spittle and the ability to breathe underwater. What made the hydra truly terrifying, however, was its incredible regenerative powers. Any injury to the hydra that wasn't immediately cauterized would heal in seconds, and injury to its serpentine necks caused them to split and grow another head. Removing a head from the hydra would only result in it growing two more in its place. The hydra was a creature that personified strength in numbers, despite being solitary in lifestyle.

Another creature that had never been seen outside of the Ancient Grove was the elusive gorgon. As far as anyone knew, the gorgon was the only one of its kind, for which everyone was thankful. The horrific monster acted normal enough, and even welcomed travelers kindly, but it failed to realize that its gaze was lethal. Anything that met the gorgon's eyes turned to stone, to be left in the Ancient Grove for eternity.

But the greatest example of unique inhabitants of the Grove was Arborick. The great treant had an almost impossible seeming resistance to fire, with the ability to break off parts of its own body to use as attack, healing back the damage the flames had done in instants. Its body was the epitome of symbiosis, with sentient vines composing its limbs after it had lost its original ones. Many creatures had used the treant as a home, from grove worms and mites to more mundane insects and rodents. Arborick had been a particularly territorial creature, however, especially when it came to anything that was not part of the Grove.

Which was why it had attacked Spyro, and then died.

But a dead treant was even more beneficial to the environment than a living one, as odd as that may seem. They no longer photosynthesized, created caves and burrows, or grew, but they served as a home for any creatures that would need one. Their bodies fertilized the soil far better than ordinary plants, and their magical natures made them the perfect place for mosses and lichens to grow.

This, though…

This was absurd.

An entire grove of dead treants, all killed by frost damage. Null hadn't imagined that the Boread's influence could even spread this far from that clearing where it meditated, but perhaps it had been a wanderer. In any case, dozens of the sapient trees dotted the area, each one as immobile as an ordinary tree. None of them retained their leaves or luminous flowers, and each and every one had their roots blackened by ice.

Null carefully padded over to one of the treants, looking at its roots. What he saw made him gasp. "Apex, come look at this."

The wind dragon loped over. He still hadn't quite gotten used to his longer legs, but he was getting there. "What're we looking at?"

In response, Null dug away at the dirt around the tree. It didn't take long for him to reveal the object hidden under the treant: a luminous blue gem. "Blue spirit gem."

"By the Ancestors…" Apex whispered reverentially, gazing at the spirit gem. He glanced around the grove. "Do you think all of them have blue spirit gems under them?"

"I don't know." Null answered, his red eyes sweeping across the dead treants. "If there are, this place would be worth a fortune to treasure hunters. Blue gems take months to grow back even a little."

"And if there are all these treants here, then that means that nobody has ever found this place," Apex muttered. "Which also means that there are _tons_ of blue gems here. This could make life so much easier!"

Apex began to dig away at the dirt around the tree, unearthing more and more of the blue spirit gems. Before long, he had revealed a cluster that was massive. The gems were easily twice the wind dragon's size, and three times Null's. Apex reached out towards the gem. "Ah-hah!"

"Wait!" Null interjected, causing Apex to freeze. "Don't do that!"

Apex glanced over at Null in confusion. "Why not? It would make life so much easier to have this sort of power boost when we fight another elemental."

"Do you know what blue gems do?" Null asked, his eyes wide.

"Um… they provide a boost in elemental power." Apex said it like it was obvious, which it was.

"Okay, now let me illustrate why that's not something you want unless you have no choice." Null sighed, shaking his head. "They infuse you with so much magical energy that it surpasses your normal boundaries, to the point where your body either adapts or shuts down. If your body doesn't react properly, it'll cripple you for life or even kill you. Even if it does work right, it'll push your boundaries to the point where the slightest mistake could cause your elemental powers to shut down entirely."

"Oh. Uhm." Apex drew his paw back. "Gotcha. Blue crystals are volatile."

Apex took a step back, but misplaced one of his front paws. With a cry of surprise, the wind dragon went tumbling forwards into the cluster of crystals. Blue spirit gem fragments went everywhere as the fragile crystals shattered, scattering across the treant above and landing in the soil. Apex froze, as if staying stationary would make it so that the crystals didn't find him.

It was to no avail, as once the blue crystals settled on the ground they went back into motion. Every single blue shard hovered through the air and hung there, only to zip towards Apex and sink into his scales. In a matter of seconds, every remnant of the blue crystal had been absorbed by the white dragon.

"Oops…" Apex said, his voice small.

"Apex, are you all right?! Do you feel strange? Can you use your element?" Null asked in concern, panic in his voice.

"Um. Yes, no, and-," A gust of wind swirled around the area. "Yes."

"You're not experiencing any effects of the blue gems? None at all?" Null prodded, looking over the edge into the pit Apex had fallen into. The wind dragon _seemed_ fine.

"Nope. I feel perfectly normal. More like I absorbed green gems than blue." Apex stretched, then climbed out of the pit. "But, uh, I'll take your advice about them next time. No blue spirit gems."

"No kidding." Null circled Apex, giving him a thorough examination. Apex's body was fine; physically, at least. Of course, that was ignoring the scar that marred his belly, but that didn't seem to be giving the wind dragon any trouble. "Well… physically there are no effects. You can still use your element, so I doubt that it's been crippled by an overexertion of your magical reservoir. You say you don't feel any stronger?"

"Not even a little bit."

"Hmm…" Null stopped his pacing, lost in thought. "Well, you've somehow managed to defy one of the most fundamental laws of magic. Good job."

"Er, thanks?" Apex asked.

Null shook his head in astonishment. "I swear, you're getting stranger by the day. Healing from near death, growing half a foot in the course of a week, and now immunity to blue gems. I thought _I_ was supposed to be the weird one."

"You _are_ the weird one, killing spirit gems and flinging body parts around," Apex teased, grinning. "Not to mention the unnatural memory you have."

"I concede to your point." Null nodded, a mischievous grin appearing on his face. "But I would like to, once again, point to your consumption of a food source that should have fed four."

A rumbling retort originated from Apex's stomach at that, causing both young dragons to burst out into laughter. "Speaking of, when're we getting something to eat?"

"Well, we _would've_ eaten back at the cave, but you were too antsy about getting on the move." Null sighed. "Stay here, I'll be back with something for you to eat."

"Alright, you're the hunter here." Apex shrugged and lay down, folding his forelegs in front of him. "I'd probably just wind up tripping over my legs and alerting the prey."

"Valid point." Null chuckled. "I'll be back soon."

With that, Null walked off. He waited until he was a fair distance from Apex before making his movements silent, not because he didn't want Apex to know, but because there was no point in doing it before then. Apex would've already scared off any prey nearby. It was a waste of effort.

Null was glad for the fact that it was summer in the Dragon Realms, because it reduced the amount of dry objects that would cause him to inadvertently make a noise. Not that noise was a problem, actually. Being completely silent wasn't useful for moving stealth. Sure, sitting silently in a corner could give you the ability to evade notice, but a moving patch of silence just begged for attention to be drawn to it. No, for true stealth you needed to blend into the ambient noise.

Visibility was also a major factor. Many thought that the pitch-black shadow dragons blended the best with darkness, but in reality they didn't. Dark greens or greys served far better, and worked during the day just as well as during the night.

But the biggest factor was olfactory senses. The sense of smell. Most prey species had a far better sense of smell than your average dragon. But Null wasn't an average dragon, not when it came to his observatory powers. His sense of smell rivalled that of the prey creatures. This gave him a huge advantage when it came to stealth. If he could smell his prey, he was downwind, and his prey couldn't smell him.

Speaking of…

Null quickly located the scent of a rabbit, making sure to position himself downwind so that it couldn't smell him. Raising his tail above him like a scorpion, Null slowly stalked towards where he could smell the rabbit. It didn't take long for him to spot the small creature, nibbling at a fern.

One quick flick of his tail later, and Null had embedded his tailblade in the creature's skull. It wasn't a perfect hit; he had only barely hit the rabbit at all. Fortunately, the week spent hunting for both himself and Apex had honed his aim enough to allow him to hit most of his throws.

The dark green dragon padded over to the downed rabbit and placed a paw on it, using it for leverage so that he could pull his tailblade out. He quickly wiped the bloodied blade on the grass, then picked up the rabbit. It wasn't much, but it should suffice.

Satisfied with his handiwork, Null picked up the rabbit in his jaws. He made his way back to Apex with the rabbit in tow, quickly getting back to the wind dragon.

"Alright, I know it's not much, but it'll have to tide you over for now," Null announced, dropping the rabbit on the ground in front of Apex and laying down opposite the wind dragon.

Apex jumped in surprise. "Ancestors, Null! You scared me!"

"Well, stop napping," Null replied dryly.

The wind dragon opened his mouth to retort, then paused. "Fair point."

Apex then began to tear at the rabbit's flesh with his teeth, scarfing down the meat as quickly as he could. Clearly he was starving, and likely could've downed a whole deer on his own. The reason Null hadn't sought prey like that, though, was because it would've taken him too long to drag it back.

After he was about halfway through the rabbit, Apex froze. He swallowed the meat in his mouth and pushed the rabbit over to Null. "Sorry, you can have some."

"Nah, I'm not hungry." Null shook his head, pushing the rabbit back. "You need it more than I do anyways, seeing as you inhaled half of it already."

"Alright then. Thanks." Apex resumed his consumption of the rabbit, now going slower.

Null looked around the treant grove. Something was nagging at him, but he couldn't tell what it was. Not a smell, as the scent of blood was still clogging his nostrils. It wasn't something he could hear, either. The only sounds were the gentle rustling of leaves in the breeze and the occasional chirping of insects. Everything he could see was fine, if one classified dozens of dead treants as fine. Really, there shouldn't have been anything for him to worry about.

But his instincts were telling him something was off. Null called some of his knowledge of the Ancient Grove into his mind, trying to think of why this would be a dangerous area. Since the freeze, all of the insects had been mundane, no grove mites. There weren't even any luminous plants growing in this area, like everywhere else the Boread had affected.

So natural Grove threats were out of the question, what about unnatural? There wasn't the odd, acidic scent of an elemental nearby: he had memorized that after encountering two of the things. But then, it could just be downwind. That would represent an issue, but if there was an elemental it would either be making a lot of noise or be causing an elemental disturbance of some sort. There wasn't an elemental here, unless it was one that knew better than to draw attention to itself.

Null sniffed the air, trying to catch a scent of something other than rabbit blood. There was the smell of rotting wood, water – lots of water – and earthy soil. Wait. Not soil. Similar to soil and insects, but not quite the same. What was that scent? It vaguely resembled grublins, but was far more… fresh? Less decaying, that was for sure.

His mouth dry, Null rose to his feet. He tried his best to ignore the sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach, but it was to no avail. "Um, Apex…?"

"Hmm?" Apex looked up from his meal.

"We might be surrounded…"

"What?!" Apex scrambled to his feet, looking about frantically.

Almost immediately weighted ropes shot out of nowhere, crossing over the two dragons. Dozens of the ropes shot over the dragons, seeming to appear out of thin air as they continually weighed them down. In moments there was an inescapable net covering both Apex and Null. Null couldn't tell what or who had thrown the ropes, as they seemed to simply disappear into the wood of the dead treants.

Then, like an optical illusion can change from being one thing to being another, the creatures appeared.

At first Null thought they were some sort of plant creature, but he quickly amended that thought when he saw that the 'bark' was a corrugated shell of wooden armor. The creatures themselves were covered in a smooth exoskeleton that was a dull green in color. With the ripping of bark, the creatures stepped away from their tree hiding places. Each one of the insectoid creatures had four arms, one larger and one smaller. All of them were holding onto the weighted ropes that held Apex and Null to the ground.

"Get these off me!" Apex snarled, releasing a pulse of wind outwards. The ropes rose off of the two dragons, giving both of them enough space to slip through them.

One of the insect creatures, the largest one by far, chittered something to its allies. In nearly synchronized motions, the insect creatures all reached towards the nearest treants. By some magic that Null couldn't understand, the insects reached _through_ the bark of the treant without breaking it, then withdrew their clawed hands with wooden spears. The towering insects twirled their spears, pointing them at Null and Apex.

Everything went still for a few moments as Null assessed the situation. They had been ambushed by creatures that could become entirely imperceptible, create weapons out of trees, and were resourceful enough to easily incapacitate two dragons.

In other words, there was no way out of this situation. Apex could unleash another fury, but that had every chance of flat out causing his heart to explode from the exertion. Null was as typically helpless as ever, and if he tried to use his tailblade in any function it would only result in a quick and probably painful death.

So, as any intelligent individual would do, Null used his only available action.

"We surrender."

"What?!" Apex hissed, glancing at Null. "We can't surrender!"

"We're surrounded by creatures that could easily kill both of us, and there are probably even more that we can't see," Null calmly explained. "I'd say our best course of action is to hope that they don't want us dead, otherwise they'd have stabbed us by now."

Apex let out a heavy sigh and relaxed his stance. "Fine. We surrender."

The leading insect creature chittered an order, and five of the creatures stepped forwards, their spears lowered. The insects grabbed the ropes off of the ground and quickly tied the dragons up, specifically binding their wings and Null's tailblade.

As soon as the two dragons were bound, the insects set off. Null followed willingly, but Apex pulled back against the ropes that were tied around him. The insect leader snarled, jabbing Apex in the flank with its spear.

"Fine, fine," Apex grumbled, following. "I'm going."

The group of insect creatures escorted the dragons through the trees, occasionally chittering to one another in their odd language. They seemed to understand the common language, at the very least, but they didn't speak it. Likely they couldn't, due to the way their vocal cords were constructed.

Null couldn't help but examine the environment as the insects brought him and Apex through. There were none of the typical luminescent plants, instead replaced by the more mundane counterparts. It was as though the toxic waters of the Grove had never reached here at all. The only thing that made this forest at all even notable was the abundance of mushrooms.

That in and of itself was odd. There were far more mushrooms than there should be after the frost, and even more than there would have been elsewhere. They were everywhere; on trees, covering rocks, even blanketing the ground. The insects seemed to love them, constantly plucking and consuming the fungi as they walked. Not a single mushroom glowed with the taint of the Grove here, yet there were so many strange varieties that Null couldn't help but wonder if it was natural.

Yet even the odd mushrooms weren't the strangest sight. Instead it was the well-constructed huts that had Null wondering if he was hallucinating. Right here, in the depths of the Grove, there was a fully functioning village. The inhabitants may have all been of an insect race, but that didn't lessen the fact that they had to be incredibly resourceful to make this work.

The escort brought the young dragons through the village to a hole in the ground, one that looked vaguely similar to the tunnels that treants dug, only much larger.

With a start, Null realized that the insects had cut the binding ropes. Before he could do anything about it, however, both he and Apex had been shoved into the hole. There was the low rumble of a heavy boulder rolling, and all light in the cave vanished.

"Well," Null muttered. "It could be worse."

Null expected Apex to make some comment or joke at that moment, so wasn't surprised when Apex's voice rang out through the darkness. What did surprise him, however, was the odd quality that the wind dragon's voice held. It sounded like someone else speaking with Apex's voice.

Even more surprising was what exactly was said.

"It could indeed, young dragon."

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Well this can't be good. Captured by a tribe of bug people and thrown into a hole in the ground? Definitely not a good thing. Apex's voice being different, and sounding like someone else using it? Probably worse.**

 **Still, it's not like it could get worse, right?**

 **...Right?**

 **Anyways, please leave a review to let me know what you think!**

 **Now read on!**


	8. Mycego

There's something terrifying about hearing a voice that's familiar, yet at the same time almost like a stranger.

It falls in the uncanny valley effect, kind of like masks and dolls. Things that are familiar, but subtly strange enough to cause maximum 'creepiness'. This was the effect that made statues, undead, and mimicking creatures more intimidating.

Thus it was a testament to Null's self-control that he didn't panic. He didn't freak out. He didn't even jump in surprise.

No, Null began to think.

"So," Null said, thinking aloud. "You're using Apex as a voice, but clearly you're not malicious. You would've attacked me by now if you were, seeing as Apex is far stronger than I am, and it shows clearly. You must have some form of mind magic in order to control Apex like this, so I'm assuming that you brought us here deliberately, using the bug people as your means."

The creature controlling Apex's voice chuckled. "You're quite right, young dragon. Very astute of you. No, I do not wish you harm. I wish to assist you."

"That's all well and good," Null began, casting about. There was the scent of mulch and grass, but much more prominently was the smell of mushrooms. "But I'd like to see who I'm talking to."

"Ah yes, I had forgotten that dragons need light. The Beetles operate well even without it, and I myself have no use for it."

As the creature controlling Apex said this, mushrooms in the cave began to emit light. Not the same toxic purple as the mushrooms throughout the Grove, but pale blues and greens. Each individual fungus only let off enough of a glow to reveal itself, but the combined effect was enough to illuminate the entire cave. Null's eyes were naturally drawn to the greatest concentration of mushrooms, in the back wall. Spirit gems grew amidst the fungi, their natural glow hidden behind the stalks.

"Wonderful, an empty cave full of mushrooms. That answers my question." Null glanced at Apex, noting the zoned-out look in his eyes. It was certainly mind magic.

"But it does answer your question." Apex cast his wing about, his eyes still staring out into space. "What's in the cave?"

Null looked around again. The only thing that he could think of was the mushrooms, which meant…

The dark green dragon walked over to the largest cluster of mushrooms, noting that they shrank away and dimmed as he walked past. Null came to a stop at the wall of mushrooms and sat, thinking. After a moment, the mushrooms began to move. Some shrank into the ground, others swayed away, but all of them vanished from the wall. All that was left was a large purple crystal, magical energy swirling around inside.

Null reached out in fascination, marveling at the shimmering magic. It was like there was a creature inside, bending the light to its whim…

"Please don't touch. That's my heart you're staring at."

Null jumped back, his eyes widening. A crystal heart? "You're an elemental?"

"Yes. A Mycego, to be specific." The psychic creature replied. "Mostly just a mind elemental, but with touches of earth magic."

"Oh, then I have no remorse doing this." Null shot his paw forwards, towards the crystal.

Suddenly, Null was sucked backwards. He stumbled back, unable to resist the sudden pull. He whirled on Apex, the only one who could've done that. The wind dragon shook his head, his eyes focusing. "He's not our enemy."

"How can you tell?" Null asked, seething. "For all we know, he's screwed with your head!"

"Look at the crystal!" Apex pointed out. "If he was trying to hurt us, it'd be dark. It would have convexity in it."

Null glanced at the crystal again, scowling. It didn't have a trace of the darkness that the Boread and the Goliath had possessed. Not even a single streak of dark purple. In fact, it seemed like there were streaks of pink and white among the purple instead. But what he noticed the most were the two yellow orbs that manifested on the surface of the crystal, looking like eyes.

Taking a deep breath, Null stepped back from the crystal. "Fine. Explain to me some things."

Apex's eyes became unfocused once more, and the Mycego took his voice. "What do you wish to know?"

"First, what are you _exactly?_ " Null asked. "You're an elemental, but the only elementals I've seen have done nothing but _kill_."

"I am a creature of earth and mind, a Mycego. Once I was something else, some _one_ else, but that was so long ago now that I cannot recall. My name is no more, but I do not need it. For as long as I and all others here can remember, I have always been the Mycego," The creature explained. "I have always tried to purge the poison from the Grove, to purify the land for the Beetles. Until lately it was slow work. There was a period where the purified land was dwindling, the poisons enhanced by the Dark Master."

"So you were working with the –what were they called? Beetles?" Null clarified. When Apex nodded, he continued. "What're they, exactly?"

"One of the Arthropod tribes. The Beetles are in sync with nature, and can become one with the plantlife. They supply me with sustenance, and I assist them in their survival," The Mycego said. "They cannot speak like other species do, they lack the proper biology."

"Well, that answers the rest of my questions…" Null mused. "Except one. Why'd you bring us here?"

"Two reasons. The first is to thank you for slaying the convexity-possessed creature that was causing mayhem in the Grove. The ice elemental that refused to cease its constant assault upon the wildlife. Its death was much needed, and it brought a purification of a large portion of the Grove. The Beetle tribe and I thank you for your great assistance." The Mycego replied. "The second reason is because your path would lead you into despair. The course you were travelling goes into the territory of the hydra, a creature that you cannot hope to help. In order to get to your destination, you must go around the end of the Silver River." The Mycego paused. "I could not contact either of you at that distance, despite my connection to the plantlife of the cleansed Grove. It was most odd. Now, though, I can contact young Apex at any time, so long as he remains in the purified Grove."

"Right…" Null sat down. "So we go into Skavenger territory to escape a monster we can't hope to fight. Wonderful. Why is it that we can't go upstream instead?"

"The waters have become more dangerous. The elements are growing unstable again. The Reassembly brought with it a pulse of stability, to repair the world; something has happened to disrupt that stability." The Mycego shook Apex's head. "If my memory was intact, I would perhaps know more. As it is, all I can say is that the waters give off the same fumes as the trees, now. Flight over the river is impossible. The only safe place to cross is in the purified area, where the hydra lives."

"Makes sense, I guess." Null sighed. "I guess we'd better get going, then."

"Spend the night here. Apex is hungry and his body is undernourished, and you need sleep just as much as any other dragon." It was strange for Apex's voice to talk in the third person, but it made a lot more sense when one took the mind magic into account.

Null mulled the options over in his mind, then nodded. "Good point. Can you tell your beetle friends to let us out, now?"

"They are already on their way," The Mycego answered. "All further communication I have with you will be relayed by Apex. Please keep in mind that the Beetles are as intelligent as any dragon, and though they do not speak the common tongue, they understand it well."

At the Mycego's words, the boulder blocking the cave entrance began to shift. Immediately, all of the mushrooms in the cave dimmed back to darkness. The wall of mushrooms moved back into place, blocking the luminous purple crystal from view once more.

In a couple seconds, the Beetles had opened the cave entrance all the way. The dim light from the cave mouth was far more than the light from the mushrooms, allowing Null to see normally. One of the insects, the big Beetle that had led the party before, walked into the cave and gestured for the two dragons to follow, chittering.

Apex shook his head as though throwing water off, his eyes focusing. He blinked a couple of times, then spoke. "She, uh, wants us to come with her."

"How do you know that?" Null asked, raising an eye-ridge.

"The Mycego told me." Apex answered, looking confused. "Um, kind of. I have no idea how to explain."

The Beetle chittered again, making another gesture.

"Right, right. Let's go." Null stood.

The Beetle walked out of the cave and glanced back, nodding when it saw that they were following. The Beetle led the two through the village to the largest hut. The walls looked like they were made of living trees, with mushrooms, lichens, and molds growing in the cracks between the tree trunks. The roof was a canopy of leaves and moss, grown tight enough together to block out rain. Instead of a door, there were vines that draped down the entrance, tight enough together that they blocked all view of the inside.

As they reached the hut's entrance, the Beetle reached out and pulled the curtain aside, gesturing for the dragons to enter. After a moment of hesitation, Apex walked inside. Null internally debated it for a moment more, then shrugged and followed.

The inside of the hut was astonishingly spacious and well-furnished, with huge, living flat-topped mushrooms serving as tables. Beds of incredibly springy moss sprouted up around the tables, while illumination was provided by luminous toadstools.

"This is amazing," Null marveled, looking around. "The amount of nature magic and patience required to do this is just… astronomical."

The Beetle chittered, its mandibles spreading into what looked like a smile, albeit a twisted one. After a moment, Apex translated. "She says thank you, she spent years on it."

She? Right. Apex had aid 'she' in reference to this Beetle earlier as well. It made some sense. Female insects were usually larger than males, and stronger as well. If the Beetles were like their smaller counterparts, then they'd certainly follow this trend.

Null's thoughts were interrupted when a vine curtain set into one wall opened, and a Beetle entered the room. This one was quite notably shorter and smaller than the female that had led the capture of Apex and Null, but had brilliant colors all over its outer shell. The smaller Beetle walked up to the larger one and began to remove her armor, the two chittering to each other all the while.

"What're they saying?" Null whispered to Apex, confused.

"Well, the chief –that's the brightly colored one- is asking his mate who we are, and why the Mycego wanted us here. She's explaining that we're the ones who killed the Boread," Apex whispered back.

Tugging the last piece of her armor off, the large Beetle approached Null and Apex, chittering. She balled her top-right hand into a fist and brought it together with her top-left. At the same time, the Beetle bowed her head, chittering.

"Um." Apex listens, then nods. "She wants to apologize for kidnapping us, and would like us to join her for dinner." Apex paused for a moment. "And, um, I misheard. She's the chief, he's her mate."

"Thank you for offering us a meal." Null bowed his head in respect. "My name is Null, and this is my friend Apex."

The Beetle chittered, gesturing at herself. Then she gestured at the male Beetle, chittering again.

"Her name is Ch'tara, and her mate is Arck'than," Apex translated. He looked at Ch'tara. "If there's anything we can do to help pay for our meal, please let us know."

The two Beetled glanced at one another, exchanging a look and chittering quietly. After a short conversation, Ch'tara spoke to Apex.

"Uh-huh. Oh. I see." Apex turned his head to look at Null. "Ch'tara says that if we want to help, there's an area of dead plants that they can't figure out the cause of. It's not blight, poison, pests, or vandalism; the plants just die."

Internally, Null was mildly angry with Apex. He had already killed a Boread. That alone should be enough to pay for a meal. Outwardly, though, Null showed none of this. "Where's the dead area?"

Ch'tara chittered to Arck'than, then gestured for the dragons to follow her. She walked out the front of the building with the two dragons following her. The Beetle led the young dragons through the village to the outskirts. Null looked around at Beetles doing mundane tasks. Some were cultivating mushrooms, others were carrying buckets of something that smelled horrible to the cave that the Mycego lived in. It was amazing, the way that the Beetles worked together with nature and the Mycego in order to survive in such a dangerous environment.

Null immediately knew when they had reached the dead zone. Plants were grey and withered, and none of them were living. There wasn't even the sound of bugs buzzing in the air, and the wind didn't blow through the leaves. It was as though the land itself had died. Null could tangibly _feel_ the lack of life, as though some almost imperceptible weight had lifted. Not necessarily in a liberating way, either. It was like a semiaquatic creature rising out of the water; it wasn't bad, but it wasn't exactly fun.

Apex, on the other hand, looked like he had been hit by a hammer. The wind dragon was breathing heavily and looked as though he was carrying a thousand pounds. His wings drooped, and he was dragging his tail.

Ch'tara didn't look much better. Even though she was a huge, incredibly strong insect, she was walking like there was something pressing down on her. She was having difficulties that hadn't been there a minute ago.

"Stop." Null commanded, coming to a complete stop. "Both of you, get back to the edge of the dead area. I'll take a look around."

The wind dragon nodded and turned around, walking back to the greenery that was visible beyond the shriveled plants. The Beetle hesitated a moment, looking at Null. When he showed no signs of suffering similarly, she followed Apex.

Alone now, Null looked around. This place was so strange. It was as though everything that had once been there was no more. There wasn't any life, no wind, and no water. Yet on the other hand there was no decay, no rot, and no death. The area was just… stopped. No scents traveled through the air, no leaves rustled as they were brushed.

Null walked around, looking at the trees. They weren't alive. But on the other hand, they weren't dead either. They were in limbo. Trapped in a state that could never be broken. Null lifted a paw and tapped on a tree trunk. No sound emitted. The tree trunk didn't give under his paw in any capacity, but it wasn't as though it was resisting. It was more like it just couldn't move. Like motion wasn't an option.

Thinking, Null picked up a rock. The stone was the same dull grey as everything else, and oddly enough wasn't even slightly heavy. It was more like picking up a feather than a stone, without the chance of the feather slipping away. Testing his hypothesis, Null tossed the stone into the air. It came back down to be caught in his paw once more. After a moment, he tossed it again. Again, it came down normally. Then he tossed it a third time and stepped back.

The rock was hanging in midair.

"Now that is strange…" Null muttered to himself.

Gravity itself wasn't working properly here. Heck, physics weren't working here. The only thing that could have any effect on the environment was something from outside. But what was outside that wasn't in here? Well, physics, clearly, but what else?

Null continued to wander around, looking at the grey area. There were mushrooms among the withered plants, growing healthily. Or they would be growing healthily, if they weren't also grey and colorless. There was a rotting log laying over a pond of grey dust, but the dust was once water and the log was no longer rotting.

Then he saw something that made him gasp.

A spirit gem cluster, growing in the middle of the grey zone. It wasn't green gems, whose light would give energy to the surrounding plant life. The gems weren't red, either, which would prevent rot and preserve the dying plants. The gems wasn't even blue, which would denote both previous effects and more. Neither was the cluster purple or black, like the ones that animated elementals. No, these gems were colorless. Used up. Drained. Dead.

Immediately, Null knew what this was. It was a magicless zone.

It made sense. Magic was in everything. From the mightiest dragons to the tiniest plants, everything had some degree of internal magic. It was even in the air, allowing ordinary feats like breathing and being affected by gravity to be possible. Without magic, the world would freeze and lose all color. It would die, without being dead. Without magic, the world would become a permanent limbo.

Satisfied that he now knew the answer, Null turned and walked back the way he came. The floating rock fell to the ground as he passed. That answered one question. Outside creatures could bring their magic in, allowing some things to return to normalcy. But in order for the area to live again, it would need to be suffused with magic. Until then the only thing an outsider could do was manipulate objects.

As he approached Ch'tara and Apex's resting place, Null spoke. "Good news is that I know what this is. Bad news is that it's effectively unfixable."

Both the wind dragon and the Beetle looked askance of him, but only Apex put it to words. "So what is it?"

"An area that absorbs and nullifies magic. It basically ruins reality as we know it. Nothing can live, but nothing can die," Null answered, continuing onwards. "The only reason anyone can even leave it is because you bring your own magic in."

Ch'tara chittered to the dragons, and Apex translated. "Yeah, I was wondering too. How does that work?"

"Ambient magic is like heat. It transfers from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration. When you're in an area with less ambient magic than you have, it becomes difficult to move, while areas with higher make you feel energized and stronger," Null explained. "That area just nullifies magic, which has a drastic effect on living beings inside. It doesn't seem to do it quickly, but if you stay in there long enough you'll wind up like a statue: grey and motionless."

"Why didn't you have any trouble?" Apex asked.

Null was silent in thought for a few moments. "That's a good question."

Ch'tara chittered something, which Apex listened to for a moment before giving the translation. "She wants to thank you for doing what you can, and says that it's okay if you can't figure it out."

Null shrugged. "It's no biggie." He paused for a moment as his stomach complained to him. "But, uh, I'd like something to eat now. The big oaf over here ate my lunch."

The three creatures shared a laugh as they walked back to the village.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **I'm alive. I swear. I definitely wasn't dead for the past * _checks watch_ * four months.**

 **In any case, I'm back now, and I've brought a new chapter!**

 **Mycego is a combination of the words mycelium, which is like a root system for mushrooms, and ego, meaning the self. It's a mind/earth elemental, so it's literally a mushroom-mind.**

 **As always, please leave a review to let me know what you think.**

 **Now read on!**


End file.
